Cultural Factors in Economic Growth

Abstract

The importance of culture. Culture is a potentially nebulous concept. Many economists deny culture any place in their theories on the grounds that the concept is so imprecise. Yet economic models that exclude culture cannot fully account for the phenomena that they attempt to explain. This has forced many economists to reluctantly acknowledge culture as a ‘residual element’ in their explanations (a recent example is Landes 1998). The residual role of culture has been particularly important in the explanation of economic growth. There can be little doubt, therefore, that a book on cultural factors in economic growth addresses an important gap in recent economic literature. This book aims to begin the process of filling that gap. The contributors are from diverse social science backgrounds, although the largest number of contributions is from economic history. This is no accident. While sociologists and anthropologists are the two disciplines to have made the most intensive use of the concept of culture, economic historians have tried hardest to draw the links between culture and economic growth.