Culture Flashcards
Chaney 2013
Role of religiosity in society as a means of maintaining the status quo or empowering certain interests. The empowerment of religious interests tends to inhibit growth-friendly institutional reforms, and increases flows to religious interests and constructions.
Finds evidence that in periods of excessive or limited Nile floods (creating food scarcity and higher violence), the “head judge” (religious ruler) had a higher rate of policy passage and a greater flow to their projects.
Depending on culture and institutions, shocks have different effects. Particular effect of mitigating pressure for institutional change in an economic downturn. Greater religiosity migitates institutional development.
Greif 1994
https://adambrown.info/p/notes/greif_cultural_beliefs_and_the_organization_of_society
Gorodnichenko and Roland 2017
Collectivist vs Individualist
Collectivist able to make a given technology most efficient (coordination), but individualism drives innovation and new technologies (dynamic). Hence China richer under Malthus, but later overtaken (reversal of fortune).
Instrument for collective culture with the prevalence of a gene that increases the pain of social exclusion, and genetic distance from the UK. Coefficient on individualism is positive and significant against income pc in 2000. Individualist culture also creates better institutions (institutional coefficient loses power against individualism, as trust). Accurately predicts differences in income and TFP between North and South Italy.
Culture as prior to institutions, and influential through the channel of technological innovation.
Bazzi et al 2020
Individualist culture is very persistent on the American frontier. Rugged individualist culture persists significantly, measured by the degree of uniqueness of names (controlling for immigrant or cultural minorities). But poverty may also be an explanation?
Rugged individualist culture was created by land abundance, where hard work was rewarded with success. Hence it manifests in opposition to taxation and redistribution. This is persistent. Effects of time on the frontier only manifest for those groups who would have benefited; no effect for black americans
Note that Argentina and Russia had similar expansions but no such culture - they lacked the institutional framework to support individualism. Explains how individualist culture is itself a product of institutions (Alesina and Giuliano 2015 do this more).
Becker and Woessmann 2009
Protestant culture as a recipe for growth. Not just the “work ethic” of Weber, or the Faustian approach to the world, or the emphasis on success in this life rather than the next. Majority protestant countries had historically higher growth than catholics (AJR say this effect disappears when given institutional)
Mechanism was a preference for education and literacy. Protestants more likely to enter technical education or commercial schools, and be in higher paying jobs.
Instrument for level of protestantism with distance from Wittenberg (which had no other significance). All P area would have a ~10% point higher literacy than all C. Correlation between P regions and higher income levels (at the extremes by around 30% of the average tax pc). Literacy as indicative of marginal productivity (rather than innovation - Squicciarini and Voigtlander).
Significant relationship between protestant culture and outcomes, through the mechanism of human capital.
Belloc et al 2016
Cultural religiosity is found to inhibit the development of self-government (movement of feudal to communal government). Culture (religiosity) affects the development of institutions and economic growth.
For religious cities, being struck by earthquakes made it less likely to become self-governing for the next 10 years, and increased flows to religious constructions (greater rates of construction). No effect for non-religious ones, and holds for destructive and non-destructive quakes (eg if it suggested that development supports a transition, and destructive quakes inhibit this).
The crisis strengthened status quo political power, but more importantly the power of religious elites who also wished to maintain the status quo. Link to Chaney 2013.
Temin 1997
Anglo-Saxon (individualist) culture as uniquely suited to the IR - hence its occurrence in GB, and takeoff in USA. Related to Protestantism, explaining why Protestantism only became significant for growth under the IR, and new organisational needs. Key elements were faustian ethic towards nature, and emphasis on individualism suited to new working practices
Disputes the story of the IR; property rights existed well before the GR (1688), but only became significant under IR. IR was an economy-wide transformation, with all keeping pace with growth. Revolution in science/engineering and organisation - division of labour. Advantage to P.
Culture might explain N/S Italy divergence, but also explains why IR took off in US and not even N Italy despite similar environment (eg agri economy).
US IR led by WASPs, shaped by individualism on the frontier.
