IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hig/wpaper/05-soc-2013.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Does Culture Matter? The Impact of Tolerance on Economic Modernization in a Comparative Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Andrey Shcherbak

    (Research Fellow, Laboratory for Comparative Social Research at the National Research University Higher School of Economics)

Abstract

Is tolerance important for modernization? What can one say about the relationship and causality between tolerance and modernization? It is assumed that an increase in tolerance, expressed as a tolerant attitude towards homosexuality, gender equality, and a decrease in xenophobia, has a significant impact on modernization. Here modernization is understood in a ?narrow? sense, referring to economic and technological modernization. The author uses the ?cultural modernization? approaches of R.Inglehart and the ?creative class? concept of R.Florida. Based on data from 55 countries, the author concludes that tolerance does have a significant impact on modernization, with gender equality being the most predictive factor and proving to be important in three groups of compared models (Index of Modernization, Innovation Index, and Investment Index). A tolerant attitude towards homosexuals and a decrease in xenophobia play a less significant role. Gender equality is an important predictor for modernization because women are in the majority – not the minority – and lowering entry barriers for women leads to their inclusion in a post-industrial economy. The results show that this is extremely important for economic modernization. Two distinct patterns of modernization are revealed: A tolerant model and a catching-up model. The former model focuses on innovation, high levels of tolerance, and strong institutions, while the latter focuses on investment, a lower-level of tolerance, and weak political institutions. Institutions do matter – they seem to be a causal mechanism in the relationship between tolerance and modernization. Institutions play a significant role in the tolerant model, where a post-industrial economy is associated with a post-industrial society. However, some countries try to build a post-industrial economy without building a post-industrial society, putting the main emphasis not on innovation, but on higher investment rates

Suggested Citation

  • Andrey Shcherbak, 2013. "Does Culture Matter? The Impact of Tolerance on Economic Modernization in a Comparative Perspective," HSE Working papers WP BRP 05/SOC/2013, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hig:wpaper:05/soc/2013
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.hse.ru/data/2012/02/22/1266050376/05SOC2012.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mellander, Charlotta & Florida, Richard, 2007. "The Creative Class or Human Capital? - explaining regional development in Sweden," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 79, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    2. Richard Florida & Charlotta Mellander & Kevin Stolarick, 2008. "Inside the black box of regional development: human capital, the creative class and tolerance," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(5), pages 615-649, September.
    3. Ross, Michael L., 2008. "Oil, Islam, and Women," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 102(1), pages 107-123, February.
    4. Richard Florida & Charlotta Mellander, 2010. "There goes the metro: how and why bohemians, artists and gays affect regional housing values," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 10(2), pages 167-188, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Niclas Berggren & Mikael Elinder, 2012. "Is tolerance good or bad for growth?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 150(1), pages 283-308, January.
    2. Haifeng Qian, 2013. "Diversity Versus Tolerance: The Social Drivers of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in US Cities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(13), pages 2718-2735, October.
    3. Annie Tubadji & Brian Osoba & Peter Nijkamp, 2015. "Culture-based development in the USA: culture as a factor for economic welfare and social well-being at a county level," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 39(3), pages 277-303, August.
    4. Aurélie LALANNE & Guillaume POUYANNE, 2012. "Ten years of metropolization in economics: a bibliometric approach (In French)," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2012-11, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    5. Berggren, Niclas & Nilsson, Therese, 2016. "Tolerance in the United States: Does economic freedom transform racial, religious, political and sexual attitudes?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 45(S), pages 53-70.
    6. Richard Florida & Charlotta Mellander & Kevin Stolarick, 2016. "Human capital in cities and suburbs," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 57(1), pages 91-123, July.
    7. Christoph Alfken & Tom Broekel & Rolf Sternberg, 2015. "Factors Explaining the Spatial Agglomeration of the Creative Class: Empirical Evidence for German Artists," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(12), pages 2438-2463, December.
    8. Kristina Vaarst Andersen & Høgni Kalsø Hansen & Arne Isaksen & Mika Raunio, 2010. "Nordic City Regions in the Creative Class Debate—Putting the Creative Class Thesis to a Test," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(2), pages 215-240.
    9. Michael Fritsch & Michael Stützer, 2012. "The Geography of Creative People in Germany revisited," Jena Economics Research Papers 2012-065, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    10. Crowley, Frank & Walsh, Edel, 2018. "How important are Personal Ties, Trust and Tolerance for Life Satisfaction in Europe?," SRERC Working Paper Series SRERCWP2018-1, University College Cork (UCC), Spatial and Regional Economic Research Centre (SRERC).
    11. Kamila Borseková & Anna Vaňová & Janka Šúrová & Pavol Kráľ & Kamila Turečková & Jan Nevima & Stanislav Martinát, 2021. "The Nexus between Creative Actors and Regional Development," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-18, March.
    12. Jose Maria Millan & Emilio Congregado & Concepcion Roman & Mirjam van Praag & Andre van Stel, 2011. "The Value of an Educated Population for an Individual's Entrepreneurship Success," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 11-066/3, Tinbergen Institute, revised 06 May 2014.
    13. Xinxiang Chen & Guanghua Chi & Guangqing Chi, 2018. "Do Airports Boost Economic Development by Attracting Talent? An Empirical Investigation at the Subcounty Level," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 99(1), pages 313-329, March.
    14. John Carruthers & Gordon F. Mulligan, 2012. "The plane of living and the precrisis evolution of housing values in the USA," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 12(4), pages 739-773, July.
    15. Winters, John V., 2014. "STEM graduates, human capital externalities, and wages in the U.S," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 190-198.
    16. David B. Audretsch & Nikolaus Seitz & Katherine Margaret Rouch, 2018. "Tolerance and innovation: the role of institutional and social trust," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 8(1), pages 71-92, March.
    17. Richard Florida, 2014. "The Creative Class and Economic Development," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 28(3), pages 196-205, August.
    18. Andrey Shcherbak, 2013. "The Impact of Tolerance on Economic Modernization in a Comparative Perspective," Foresight and STI Governance (Foresight-Russia till No. 3/2015), National Research University Higher School of Economics, vol. 7(4), pages 6-15.
    19. Sara Santos Cruz & Aurora A.C. Teixeira, 2012. "Methodological approaches for measuring the creative employment: a critical appraisal with an application to Portugal," FEP Working Papers 455, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    20. Sara Cruz & Aurora Teixeira, 2015. "The neglected heterogeneity of spatial agglomeration and co-location patterns of creative employment: evidence from Portugal," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 54(1), pages 143-177, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    cultural change; technological modernization; institutions; gender equality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • A13 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Social Values

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hig:wpaper:05/soc/2013. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Shamil Abdulaev or Shamil Abdulaev (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/hsecoru.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.