Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Culture and Religion

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
An Economist’s Guide to Economic History

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Economic History ((PEHS))

Abstract

Culture is the result of, and is itself expressed through, religion, language, institutions, and history. Culture is persistent but does change slowly over time. Religion is either one manifestation of culture or itself shapes that culture. This chapter discusses recent contributions to the economics of culture and religion, a literature which was instigated by economic historians and has long been dominated by their work. Its author especially focuses on the role of culture and religion in engendering industrial progress and institutional change.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 49.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Reading List

  • Abramitzky, Ran. 2011. Lessons from the Kibbutz on the Equality-Incentives Trade-Off. Journal of Economic Perspectives 25 (1): 185–208.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alesina, Alberto, and Paola Giuliano. 2015. Culture and Institutions. Journal of Economic Literature 53 (4): 898–944.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Becker, Sascha O., and Ludger Woessmann. 2010. Was Weber Wrong? A Human Capital Theory of Protestant Economic History. Quarterly Journal of Economics 124 (2): 531–596.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Becker, Sascha O., Steven Pfaff, and Jared Rubin. 2016. Causes and Consequences of the Protestant Reformation. Explorations in Economic History 62: 1–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Botticini, Maristella, and Zvi Eckstein. 2012. The Chosen Few: How Education Shaped Jewish History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, Gregory. 2007. A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Colvin, Christopher L. 2017. Banking on a Religious Divide: Accounting for the Success of the Netherlands’ Raiffeisen Cooperatives in the Crisis of the 1920s. Journal of Economic History 77 (3): 866–919.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Colvin, Christopher L., and Matthew McCracken. 2017. Work Ethic, Social Ethic, No Ethic: Measuring the Economic Values of Modern Christians. Journal of Applied Econometrics 32 (5): 1043–4053.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gershman, Boris. 2017. Long-Run Development and the New Cultural Economics. In Demographic Change and Long-Run Development, ed. Matteo Cervellati and Uwe Sunde, 221-262. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greif, Avner. 1994. Cultural Beliefs and the Organization of Society: A Historical and Theoretical Reflection on Collectivist and Individualist Societies. Journal of Political Economy 102 (5): 912–950.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guiso, Luigi, Paola Sapienza, and Luigi Zingales. 2006. Does Culture Affect Economic Outcomes? Journal of Economic Perspectives 20 (2): 23–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Iannaccone, Lawrence R. 1992. Sacrifice and Stigma: Reducing Free-Riding in Cults, Communes, and Other Collectives. Journal of Political Economy 100 (2): 271–291.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, Eric L. 1995. Culture and Its Relationship to Economic Change. Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics 151 (2): 269–285.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCloskey, Deirdre N. 2016. The Great Enrichment: A Humanistic and Social Scientific Account. Scandinavian Economic History Review 64 (1): 6–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mokyr, Joel. 2016. A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • North, Douglass C. 1991. Institutions. Journal of Economic Perspectives 5 (1): 97–112.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nunn, Nathan, and Leonard Wantchekon. 2011. The Slave Trade and the Origins of Mistrust in Africa. American Economic Review 101 (7): 3221–3252.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Salah, Mohamed. 2015. The Reluctant Transformation: State Industrialization, Religion, and Human Capital in Nineteenth-Century Egypt. Journal of Economic History 75 (1): 65–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, Adam. (1998) 1776. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Edited by Kathryn Sutherland. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Temin, Peter. 1997. Is it Kosher to Talk about Culture? Journal of Economic History 57 (2): 267–287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Voigtländer, Nico, and Hans-Joachim Voth. 2012. Persecution Perpetuated: The Medieval Origins of Anti-Semitic Violence in Nazi Germany. Quarterly Journal of Economics 127 (3): 1339–1392.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weber, Max. (2011) 1904/1920. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Edited by Kalberg Stephen. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK

    Christopher L. Colvin

Authors
  1. Christopher L. Colvin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK

    Matthias Blum

  2. Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK

    Christopher L. Colvin

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Colvin, C.L. (2018). Culture and Religion. In: Blum, M., Colvin, C. (eds) An Economist’s Guide to Economic History. Palgrave Studies in Economic History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96568-0_26

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96568-0_26

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-96567-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-96568-0

  • eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation