Culture and Institutions
01 Dec 2015-Journal of Economic Literature (American Economic Association)-Vol. 53, Iss: 4, pp 898-944
TL;DR: A growing body of empirical work measuring different types of cultural traits has shown that culture matters for a variety of economic outcomes as mentioned in this paper, focusing on one specific aspect of the relevance of culture: its relationship to institutions.
Abstract: A growing body of empirical work measuring different types of cultural traits has shown that culture matters for a variety of economic outcomes. This paper focuses on one specific aspect of the relevance of culture: its relationship to institutions. We review work with a theoretical, empirical, and historical bent to assess the presence of a two-way causal effect between culture and institutions. ( JEL D02, D72, I32, J12, Z13)
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TL;DR: This paper used a series of field experiments in rural Burundi to examine the impact of exposure to conflict on social, risk, and time preferences, and found that conflict affects behavior: individuals exposed to violence display more altruistic behavior towards their neighbors, are more risk-seeking, and have higher discount rates.
Abstract: We use a series of field experiments in rural Burundi to examine the impact of exposure to conflict on social, risk, and time preferences. We find that conflict affects behavior: individuals exposed to violence display more altruistic behavior towards their neighbors, are more risk-seeking, and have higher discount rates. Large adverse shocks can thus alter savings and investments decisions, and potentially have long-run consequences-even if the shocks themselves are temporary.
756 citations
Cites background or methods or result from "Culture and Institutions"
...Columns 1 and 2 use 30 observations instead of 35 due to missing 1993 ethnicity data. Column 3 uses 94 observations and not 100 due to missing 1993 population data. Dependent variable dead in attacks relative to number of households and not population due to missing population data. Columns 1–6 use mainly BPHS and BSC 2009 data. Ethnic livestock ownership data are from BEES (2009). Dependent variable in column 6 is a dummy, 1 if respondent was interviewed in both 1998 and 2007, zero else....
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...8 USD 1 = 1,210 FBU (May 20, 2009), which is roughly equal to a full day’s wage rate for unskilled labor. 9 Our design differs slightly from Harbaugh, Krause, and Vesterlund (2002) as we specifically use information from questions where the certainty equivalent is different from the expected value of the gamble....
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...Preferences Social preferences (0–100, 2009) 286 35 27.32 27.22 0 100 Risk preferences Gains (2009) 220 35 1....
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...Community variables Land Gini coefficient (2007)(2) 35 0.29 0.20 0 0.54 Distance to market (2007)(3) 35 2....
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...21 Similarly, and following Blattman (2009), we have experimented with alternative proxies and controls to probe the robustness of our findings....
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors proposed a place-sensitive distributed development policy (PSDP) to promote opportunity in industrial declining and less-developed regions in Europe, which is called PLDP.
Abstract: Regional economic divergence has become a threat to economic progress, social cohesion and political stability in Europe. Market processes and policies that are supposed to spread prosperity and opportunity are no longer sufficiently effective. The evidence points to the existence of several different modes of regional economic performance in Europe, responding to different development challenges and opportunities. Both mainstream and heterodox theories have gaps in their ability to explain the existence of these different regional trajectories and the weakness of the convergence processes among them. Therefore, a different approach is required, one that strengthens Europe’s strongest regions but develops new approaches to promote opportunity in industrial declining and less-developed regions. There is ample new theory and evidence to support such an approach, which we have labelled ‘place-sensitive distributed development policy’.
378 citations
Cites background from "Culture and Institutions"
...Institutions are the rules of the game in a society, and they can be understood in the broad sense as including formal organisations, government and laws, as well as a variety of informal norms, conventions and collective beliefs (North, 1990: 477; Alesina and Guiliano, 2015)....
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors study the implications of the Great Recession for voting for anti-establishment parties, as well as for general trust and political attitudes, using regional data across Europe and find a strong relationship between increases in unemployment and voting for non-mainstream parties, especially populist ones.
Abstract: We study the implications of the Great Recession for voting for antiestablishment parties, as well as for general trust and political attitudes, using regional data across Europe. We find a strong relationship between increases in unemployment and voting for nonmainstream parties, especially populist ones. Moreover, unemployment increases in tandem with declining trust toward national and European political institutions, though we find only weak or no effects of unemployment on interpersonal trust. The correlation between unemployment and attitudes toward immigrants is muted, especially for their cultural impact. To explore causality, we extract the component of increases in unemployment explained by the precrisis structure of the economy, in particular the share of construction in regional value added, which is strongly related both to the buildup preceding and the bursting of the crisis. Our results imply that crisis- driven economic insecurity is a substantial determinant of populism and political distrust.
346 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate the role of changes in culture arising from learning in generating the increase in married women's labor force participation in the US over the last century and show that this role was quantitatively important in several decades.
Abstract: Married women's labor force participation increased dramatically over the last cen- tury. Why this occurred has been the subject of much debate. This paper investigates the role of changes in culture arising from learning in generating this increase. To do so, it develops a dynamic model of culture in which individuals hold heterogeneous beliefs regarding the relative long-run payos for women who work in the market versus the home. These beliefs evolve rationally via an intergenerational learning process. Women are assumed to learn about the long-term payos of working by observing (noisy) pri- vate and public signals. This process generically generates an S-shaped …gure for female labor force participation, which is what is found in the data. The S shape results from the dynamics of learning. I calibrate the model to several key statistics and show that it does a good job in replicating the quantitative evolution of female LFP in the US over the last 120 years. The model highlights a new dynamic role for changes in wages via their eect on intergenerational learning. The calibration shows that this role was quantitatively important in several decades.
337 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the study of economic history provides vital insights into the process through which modern states have acquired "state capacity" and evaluate the process of state building across a range of different countries in Europe and Asia.
207 citations
Cites background from "Culture and Institutions"
...Third, there is a complementarity between cultural values and institutional change which offers the potential to provide a powerful explanation of why attempts to reform institutions sometimes succeed and sometimes fail (Greif, 1994; Tabellini, 2008; Alesina and Giuliano, 2015)....
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References
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TL;DR: In this paper, the concept of social capital is introduced and illustrated, its forms are described, the social structural conditions under which it arises are examined, and it is used in an analys...
Abstract: In this paper, the concept of social capital is introduced and illustrated, its forms are described, the social structural conditions under which it arises are examined, and it is used in an analys...
31,693 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the role that institutions, defined as the humanly devised constraints that shape human interaction, play in economic performance and how those institutions change and how a model of dynamic institutions explains the differential performance of economies through time.
Abstract: Examines the role that institutions, defined as the humanly devised constraints that shape human interaction, play in economic performance and how those institutions change and how a model of dynamic institutions explains the differential performance of economies through time. Institutions are separate from organizations, which are assemblages of people directed to strategically operating within institutional constraints. Institutions affect the economy by influencing, together with technology, transaction and production costs. They do this by reducing uncertainty in human interaction, albeit not always efficiently. Entrepreneurs accomplish incremental changes in institutions by perceiving opportunities to do better through altering the institutional framework of political and economic organizations. Importantly, the ability to perceive these opportunities depends on both the completeness of information and the mental constructs used to process that information. Thus, institutions and entrepreneurs stand in a symbiotic relationship where each gives feedback to the other. Neoclassical economics suggests that inefficient institutions ought to be rapidly replaced. This symbiotic relationship helps explain why this theoretical consequence is often not observed: while this relationship allows growth, it also allows inefficient institutions to persist. The author identifies changes in relative prices and prevailing ideas as the source of institutional alterations. Transaction costs, however, may keep relative price changes from being fully exploited. Transaction costs are influenced by institutions and institutional development is accordingly path-dependent. (CAR)
26,011 citations
Book•
01 Jan 2000TL;DR: Putnam as mentioned in this paper showed that changes in work, family structure, age, suburban life, television, computers, women's roles and other factors are isolating Americans from each other in a trend whose reflection can clearly be seen in British society.
Abstract: BOWLING ALONE warns Americans that their stock of "social capital", the very fabric of their connections with each other, has been accelerating down. Putnam describes the resulting impoverishment of their lives and communities. Drawing on evidence that includes nearly half a million interviews conducted over a quarter of a century in America, Putnam shows how changes in work, family structure, age, suburban life, television, computers, women's roles and other factors are isolating Americans from each other in a trend whose reflection can clearly be seen in British society. We sign 30 percent fewer petitions than we did ten years ago. Membership in organisations- from the Boy Scouts to political parties and the Church is falling. Ties with friends and relatives are fraying: we're 35 percent less likely to visit our neighbours or have dinner with our families than we were thirty years ago. We watch sport alone instead of with our friends. A century ago, American citizens' means of connecting were at a low point after decades of urbanisation, industrialisation and immigration uprooted them from families and friends. That generation demonstrated a capacity for renewal by creating the organisations that pulled Americans together. Putnam shows how we can learn from them and reinvent common enterprises that will make us secure, productive, happy and hopeful.
24,532 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1973
TL;DR: The INTERPRETATION OF CULTURES CLIFFORD GEERTZ Books files are available at the online library of the University of Southern California as mentioned in this paper, where they can be used to find any kind of Books for reading.
Abstract: THE INTERPRETATION OF CULTURES CLIFFORD GEERTZ PDF Are you searching for THE INTERPRETATION OF CULTURES CLIFFORD GEERTZ Books files? Now, you will be happy that at this time THE INTERPRETATION OF CULTURES CLIFFORD GEERTZ PDF is available at our online library. With our complete resources, you could find THE INTERPRETATION OF CULTURES CLIFFORD GEERTZ PDF or just found any kind of Books for your readings everyday.
20,105 citations
TL;DR: Theories of the self from both psychology and anthropology are integrated to define in detail the difference between a construal of self as independent and a construpal of the Self as interdependent as discussed by the authors, and these divergent construals should have specific consequences for cognition, emotion, and motivation.
Abstract: People in different cultures have strikingly different construals of the self, of others, and of the interdependence of the 2. These construals can influence, and in many cases determine, the very nature of individual experience, including cognition, emotion, and motivation. Many Asian cultures have distinct conceptions of individuality that insist on the fundamental relatedness of individuals to each other. The emphasis is on attending to others, fitting in, and harmonious interdependence with them. American culture neither assumes nor values such an overt connectedness among individuals. In contrast, individuals seek to maintain their independence from others by attending to the self and by discovering and expressing their unique inner attributes. As proposed herein, these construals are even more powerful than previously imagined. Theories of the self from both psychology and anthropology are integrated to define in detail the difference between a construal of the self as independent and a construal of the self as interdependent. Each of these divergent construals should have a set of specific consequences for cognition, emotion, and motivation; these consequences are proposed and relevant empirical literature is reviewed. Focusing on differences in self-construals enables apparently inconsistent empirical findings to be reconciled, and raises questions about what have been thought to be culture-free aspects of cognition, emotion, and motivation.
18,178 citations