Culture in Economics: History, Methodological Reflections and Contemporary Applications

✍ Scribed by Sjoerd Beugelsdijk, Robbert Maseland

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 408
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Many economists now accept that informal institutions and culture play a crucial role in economic outcomes. Driven by the work of economists like Nobel laureates Douglass North and Gary Becker, there is an important body of work that invokes cultural and institutional factors to build a more comprehensive and realistic theory of economic behavior. This book provides a comprehensive overview of research in this area, sketching the main premises and challenges faced by the field. The first part introduces and explains the various theoretical approaches to studying culture in economics, going back to Smith and Weber, and addresses the methodological issues that need to be considered when including culture in economics. The second part of the book then provides readers with a series of examples that show how the cultural approach can be used to explain economic phenomena in four different areas: entrepreneurship, trust, international business and comparative corporate governance.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover......Page 1
Frontmatter......Page 2
Contents......Page 6
List of figures......Page 9
List of tables......Page 10
List of boxes......Page 11
Prologue......Page 12
Part I - History and methodological reflections......Page 22
1.1 Introduction......Page 24
1.2 Culture as artificial......Page 25
1.3 Culture as ideas and worldviews influencing behavior......Page 26
1.4 Culture as group distinction......Page 27
1.5 Culture as inherited, unquestioned given......Page 29
1.6 Competing terms: ideology, institutions, ethnicity, nationality......Page 32
1.7 Conclusion: culture in this book......Page 34
2.1 Introduction......Page 36
2.2 A history of culture in economics......Page 37
2.3 A history of culture vs. economics......Page 57
2.4 Conclusion......Page 78
3.1 Introduction......Page 81
3.2 Modern economics: the cultureless science......Page 84
3.3 Culture's comeback......Page 86
3.4 Meanwhile, in cultural sciences......Page 98
3.5 Conclusion......Page 104
4.1 Introduction......Page 106
4.2 Economy and culture......Page 107
4.3 Economy as culture......Page 118
4.4 Culture as economics......Page 128
4.5 The culture of economics......Page 133
4.6 Conclusion......Page 138
5.1 Introduction......Page 140
5.2 Methodological challenges when including culture in economics......Page 142
5.3 Research methods......Page 154
5.4 Conclusion......Page 168
Introduction to Part II......Page 171
6.1 Introduction......Page 175
6.2 How to theorize on the entrepreneur and entrepreneurial culture......Page 177
6.3 McClelland's seminal study on N achievement......Page 179
6.4 Entrepreneurial trait research: unique personality of entrepreneurs......Page 185
6.5 Economic Consequences of Entrepreneurial Culture......Page 191
6.6 Discussion: linking the individual and the collective......Page 197
7.1 Introduction......Page 201
7.2 Trust as a proxy for culture......Page 202
7.3 Antecedents of trust......Page 208
7.4 Trust--growth studies......Page 221
7.5 Methodology of the generalized trust question......Page 233
7.6 Discussion: from well-tossed spaghetti to multi-layered lasagna......Page 239
8.1 Introduction......Page 246
8.2 Defining the field of international business and how culture fits in......Page 247
8.3 Cultural distance: concept, measurement and critique......Page 252
8.4 How cultural distance affects type and location of MNE activity......Page 257
8.5 Comparative management: managerial values and international cooperation......Page 264
8.6 Discussion: how culture matters......Page 270
9.1 Introduction......Page 274
9.2 Corporate governance systems and legal origin......Page 275
9.3 Differences in investor protection regimes......Page 281
9.4 From legal origin to culture......Page 290
9.5 Critique of the law and finance literature......Page 297
9.6 Discussion......Page 302
Part III - Evaluation......Page 307
10.1 Introduction......Page 309
10.2 Economic individualism vs. cultural collectivism......Page 310
10.3 Exogenous structures vs. rational agents......Page 315
10.4 Economic universalism and cultural contingency......Page 322
10.5 The political--economic dimension......Page 332
10.6 Conclusion......Page 335
References......Page 339
Index......Page 391