Cultural economics is the branch of economics that studies the relation of culture to economic outcomes. Here, 'culture' is defined by shared beliefs and preferences of respective groups. Programmatic issues include whether and how much culture matters as to economic outcomes and what its relation is to institutions such as laws, rules, social conventions, norms, and so on.Press + button or ctrl + for small-font links below. • Luigi Guiso, Paola Sapienza, and Luigi Zingales, 2006. "Does Culture Affect Economic Outcomes?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, 20(2), pp. 23-48. • Mark Casson (2006). "Culture and Economic Performance," Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, V. 1, Chap. 12, pp. 359–97. doi:10.1016/S1574-0676(06)01012-X • Paul Streeten (2006}. "Culture and Economic Development", V. 1 Chap. 13, pp. 399–412. • Jeanette D. Snowball, 2008. Measuring the Value of Culture, Springer. [https://www.springer.com/economics/microeconomics/book/978-3-540-74355-2 Description and Arrow-page searchable chapter links. • Joseph Henrich et al., 2005. "'Economic Man' in Cross-Cultural Perspective: Behavioral Experiments in 15 Small-scale Societies," Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28(6), pp. 795–815. • Samuel Bowles, 1998. "Endogenous Preferences: The Cultural Consequences of Markets and Other Economic Institutions," Journal of Economic Literature, 36(1), pp. 75–111. • Guido Tabellini, 2008. "Institutions and Culture," Journal of the European Economic Association, 6(2/3), 2008), pp. 255–94. • Raquel Fernández, 2016. "Culture and Economics." The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. As a growing field in behavioral economics, the role of culture in economic behavior is increasingly being demonstrated to cause significant differentials in decision-making and the management and valuation of assets.
Applications include the study of religion,• Laurence R. Iannaccone, 1998. "Introduction to the Economics of Religion," Journal of Economic Literature, 36(3), pp. 1465–95.
• Luigi Guiso, Paola Sapienza, Luigi Zingales, 2003, "People's Opium? Religion and Economic Attitudes", Journal of Monetary Economics, January 2003.https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-3932(02)00202-7 • Laurence R. Iannaccone and Eli Berman, 2008. "religion, economics of," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract. social capital, social norms,• H. Peyton Young, 2008. "social norms." The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract • Kenneth G. Binmore and Larry Samuelson, 1994. "An Economist's Perspective on the Evolution of Norms," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 150(1), pp. 45–63. Abstract. • Richard A. Posner, 1997. "Social Norms and the Law: An Economic Approach," American Economic Review, 87(2), p. 365–69. • Gary S. Becker and Kevin M. Murphy, 2001, Social Economics: Market Behavior in a Social Environment, ch. 10, "The Formation of Norms and Values." Description and table of contents. Harvard University Press. • Jess Benhabib, Alberto Bisin, and Matthew Jackson, ed., 2011. Handbook of Social Economics, Elsevier. Vol. 1A: Part 1. Social Preferences, ch. 1-11; Part 2. Social Actions, ch. 12-17. Description & Contents links and chapter-preview links. • Arthur J. Robson, 2008. "group selection," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract. social identity,George A. Akerlof and Rachel E. Kranton, 2000. "Economics and Identity," Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115(3), pp. 715–53. • _____, 2005. "Identity and the Economics of Organizations," Journal of Economic Perspectives, 19(1), pp. 9–32. • _____, 2010. Identity Economics: How Our Identities Shape Our Work, Wages, and Well-Being, Princeton University Press. Description & TOC, "Introduction," pp. 3–8, and preview. fertility,Raquel Fernández and Alessandra Fogli, 2006. "Fertility: The Role of Culture and Family Experience," Journal of the European Economic Association, 4(2/3), pp. 552–61. beliefs in redistributive justice,Roland Bénabou and Jean Tirole, 2006. "Belief in a Just World and Redistributive Politics," Quarterly Journal of Economics, 121(2), pp. 699–746. ideology,• Roland Bénabou, 2008. "Ideology," Journal of the European Economic Association, 6(2-3), pp. 321–52. • Joseph P. Kalt and Mark A. Zupan, 1984. "Capture and Ideology in the Economic Theory of Politics," American Economic Review, 74(3), p. 279–300. Reprinted in C. Grafton and A. Permaloff, ed., 2005, The Behavioral Study of Political Ideology and Public Policy Formation, ch. 4, pp. 65–104. • • D. Andrew Austin and Nathaniel T. Wilcox, 2007. "Believing in Economic Theories: Sex, Lies, Evidence, Trust, and Ideology," Economic Inquiry 45(3), pp. 502–18. • Timur Kuran, 1995. Private Truths, Public Lies: The Social Consequences of Preference Falsification. Harvard University Press. Description and scroll to chapter-preview links. hatred,Edward L. Glaeser, 2005. "The Political Economy of Hatred," Quarterly Journal of Economics, 120(1), pp. 45–86. terrorism,• S. Brock Blomberg and Gregory D. Hess,`2008. "terrorism, economics of," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract. • Alan B. Krueger, 2008. What Makes a Terrorist: Economics and the Roots of Terrorism, Princeton. Description , Introduction, and ch. 1 preview. trust,• Joyce Berg, John Dickhaut, and Kevin McCabe, 1995. "Trust, Reciprocity, and Social History," Games and Economic Behavior, 10(1), pp. 122–42. • Raymond Fisman and Tarun Khanna, 1999. "Is Trust a Historical Residue? Information Flows and Trust Levels." Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 38(1), pp. 79–92. • Nava Ashraf, Iris Bohnet, and Nikita Piankov, 2006. "Decomposing Trust and Trustworthiness," Experimental Economics, 9(3), pp. 193–208. • Paul J. Zak and Stephen Knack, 2001. "Trust and Growth," Economic Journal, 111(470), p p. 295–321. • Patrick Francois and Jan Zabojnik, 2005. "Trust, Social Capital, and Economic Development," Journal of the European Economic Association, 3(1), p p. 51–94. • Sjoerd Beugelsdijk, 2006. "A Note on the Theory and Measurement of Trust in Explaining Differences in Economic Growth," Cambridge Journal of Economics, 30(3), pp. 371–87. • Swee-Hoon Chuah et al., 2007. "Do Cultures Clash? Evidence from Cross-national Ultimatum Game Experiments," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 64(1), pp. 35–48. family ties, long-term orientation, and the culture of economics.• Melvin W. Reder, 1999. Economics: The Culture of a Controversial Science, Description and chapter links. • Joseph J. Spengler,1970. "Notes on the International Transmission of Economic Ideas," History of Political Economy, 2(1), p p. 133–51. • Yuval Yonay and Daniel Breslau, 2006. "Marketing Models: The Culture of Mathematical Economics," Sociological Forum, 21(3), p p. 345–86. HTMlAs at Journal of Economic Literature category JEL: Z1 Cultural Economics,.... A general analytical theme is how ideas and behaviors are spread among individuals through the formation of social capital,• Partha Dasgupta, 2008. "social capital," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract. • Joel Sobel, 2002. "Can We Trust Social Capital?" Journal of Economic Literature, 40(1), pp. 139–54 (close Bookmarks tab). social networksJames Moody and Martina Morris. "social networks, economic relevance of," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition Abstract. and processes such as social learning, as in the theory of social evolution• Paul Seabright, 2008. "hunters, gatherers, cities and evolution," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract. • Alberto Bisin and Thierry Verdier, 2008. "cultural transmission," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract. • Joel M. Guttman, 2003. "Repeated Interaction and the Evolution of Preferences for Reciprocity," Economic Journal, 113(489), p p. 631–56. • Alberto Bisin et al., 2004. "Cooperation as a Transmitted Cultural Trait," Rationality and Society, 16(4), 477–507. Abstract. • Oded Galor and Omer Moav, 2002. "Natural Selection and the Origin of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 117(4), 1133–1191. and information cascades.• Sushil Bikhchandani, David Hirshleifer, and Ivo Welch, 1992. "A Theory of Fads, Fashion, Custom, and Cultural Change as Informational Cascades." Journal of Political Economy, 100(5), pp. 992–1026. • Sushil Bikhchandani, David Hirshleifer, and Ivo Welch, 1998. "Learning from the Behavior of Others: Conformity, Fads, and Informational Cascades," Journal of Economic Perspectives, 12(3), pp. 151–70. • Sushil Bikhchandani, David Hirshleifer, and Ivo Welch, 2008. "information cascades," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract. Methods include case studies and theoretical and empirical modeling of cultural transmission within and across social groups.• Alberto Bisin and Thierry Verdier, 2008. "cultural transmission. The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract. • Rob Boyd, 2008. "cross-cultural experiments." The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract. • José A. Scheinkman, 2008. "social interactions (theory)," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract. • Charles F. Manski, 2000. "Economic Analysis of Social Interactions," Journal of Economic Perspectives, 14(3), pp.115–36 here or here or with linked citations . • Edward P. Lazear, 1999. "Culture and Language," Journal of Political Economy, 107(6), Part 2, pp. S95–S126. • Oded Galor and Omer Moav, 2002. "Natural Selection and the Origin of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 117(4), pp. 1133–1191. • Enrico Spolaore and Romain Wacziarg, 2013. "How deep are the roots of economic development?," Journal of Economic Literature, 51(2), pp. 325–369. • Oded Galor and Ömer Özak, 2016. "The Agricultural Origins of Time Preference," American Economic Review, 106(10), pp. 3064–3103. In 2013, Said E. Dawlabani added the value systems approach to the cultural emergence aspect of macroeconomics.Said Elias Dawlabani. MEMEnomics; The Next Generation Economic System,
Development Cultural economics develops from how wants and tastes are formed in society. This is partly due to nurture aspects, or what type of environment one is raised in, as it is the internalization of one's upbringing that shapes their future wants and tastes. Acquired tastes can be thought of as an example of this, as they demonstrate how preferences can be shaped socially.
A key thought area that separates the development of cultural economics from traditional economics is a difference in how individuals arrive at their decisions. While a traditional economist will view decision making as having both implicit and explicit consequences, a cultural economist would argue that an individual will not only arrive at their decision based on these implicit and explicit decisions but based on trajectories. These trajectories consist of regularities, which have been built up throughout the years and guide individuals in their decision-making process.
Combining value systems and systems thinking Economists have also started to look at cultural economics with a systems thinking approach. In this approach, the economy and culture are each viewed as a single system where "interaction and feedback effects were acknowledged, and where in particular the dynamic were made explicit". In this sense, the interdependencies of culture and the economy can be combined and better understood by following this approach.