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Respect, responsibility, and development

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  • Breuer, Janice Boucher
  • McDermott, John

Abstract

We develop a theory that explains how two core values – Respect for others and Responsibility – affect productivity, the accumulation of capital, and output per worker. Using data from the World Values Survey, we empirically test the model using a panel dataset that includes 82 countries over six distinct years. We find that these two core values are important to production and that their impact is substantial. We also show that Respect and Responsibility reduce the influence of trust and mitigate the negative macroeconomic effects associated with fractionalized societies. Our results are robust to various treatments for endogeneity and under alternative samples.

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  • Breuer, Janice Boucher & McDermott, John, 2013. "Respect, responsibility, and development," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 36-47.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:deveco:v:105:y:2013:i:c:p:36-47
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2013.06.004
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    Cited by:

    1. İ. Semih Akçomak & Hanna Müller-Zick, 2018. "Trust and inventive activity in Europe: causal, spatial and nonlinear forces," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 60(3), pages 529-568, May.
    2. Breuer, Janice Boucher & McDermott, John, 2013. "Economic depression in the world," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 38(PB), pages 227-242.
    3. González, Felipe & Miguel, Edward, 2015. "War and local collective action in Sierra Leone: A comment on the use of coefficient stability approaches," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 30-33.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Culture; Values; Respect; Responsibility; Trustworthiness; Trust;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O43 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Institutions and Growth
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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