Generalized Morality, Institutions and Economic Growth, and the Intermediating Role of Generalized Trust

James, Harvey S.

doi:10.1111/kykl.12079

Cited by 57 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 75 publications

(109 reference statements)

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“…The literature discusses the relevance of culture for, e.g. : (i) formal institutions in a historical perspective (e.g., Todd, 1990;Fischer, 1991;Greif, 1994;Alesina and Glaeser, 2004); (ii) financial institutions (e.g., Guiso et al, 2004Guiso et al, , 2007Guiso et al, , 2008; (iii) formal legal institutions, economic freedom, trust, morality, democracy, and fertility (e.g., Almond and Verba, 1963;Licht et al, 2005;Tabellini, 2010;Alesina and Giuliano, 2011;Murrell and Schmidt, 2011;Berggren and Nilsson, 2013;Nannicini et al, 2013;Basso, 2015;Gorodnichenko and Roland, 2015;James, 2015;Nikolaev and Salahodjaev, 2017). Andersen et al, 2016).…”

Section: Conceptual Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sunlight, Disease, and Institutions

Ang¹,

Fredriksson²,

Nurhakim³

et al. 2018

Kyklos

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Section: Conceptual Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sunlight, Disease, and Institutions

Ang¹,

Fredriksson²,

Nurhakim³

et al. 2018

Kyklos

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“…Finally, we advance the literature methodologically by suggesting a potential new instrument that can be used to examine the effect of a wide range of cultural values (e.g., social trust, religiosity, ethnolinguistic fractionalization) on numerous economic, social, and political outcomes. This is important since many recent studies document a strong correlation between institutions and cultural values such as social trust (Berggren and Nilsson ), morality (James ), attitudes toward fertility and childbearing (Basso ) and outcomes such as control perceptions (Nikolaev and Bennett ) and even happiness inequality (Bennett and Nikolaev ), to mention a few.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Historical Prevalence of Infectious Diseases, Cultural Values, and the Origins of Economic Institutions

Nikolaev

Salahodjaev

2017

Kyklos

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Summary It is widely believed that economic institutions such as competitive markets, the banking system, and the structure of property rights are essential for economic development. But why economic institutions vary across countries and what are their deep origins is still a question that is widely debated in the developmental economics literature. In this study, we provide an empirical test for the provocative hypothesis that the prevalence of infectious diseases influenced the formation of personality traits, cultural values, and even morality at the regional level (the so called Parasite‐ Stress Theory of Values and Sociality), which then shaped economic institutions across countries. Using the prevalence of pathogens as an instrument for cultural traits such as individualism, we show in a two‐stage least squares analysis that various economic institutions, measured by different areas of the index of Economic Freedom by the Heritage Foundation, have their deep origins in the historical prevalence of infectious diseases across countries. Our causal identification strategy suggests that cultural values affect economic institutions even after controlling for a number of confounding variables, geographic controls, and for different sub‐samples of countries. We further show that the results are robust to four alternative measures of economic and political institutions.

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“…In a deeper sense for professional economists, we may note that the relevance of this point is related to the fact that not all interpersonal effects/relationships are negotiated/effected only through market exchange; there are some direct and subtle effects beyond monetary transaction. In addition, morality (or social capital like trust more generally) may also contribute to individual utilities through its contribution to cooperation and economic growth (James 2015, Tabellini 2008. Similarly, other possible indirect effects may be allowed for.…”

Section: Axiommentioning

confidence: 99%

Extending Economic Analysis to Analyze Policy Issues More Broadly

Ng¹

2019

Markets and Morals

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Extending traditional economic policy analysis to include factors emphasized by other social scientists and philosophers, more social and public policy issues may be analyzed more adequately. For example, should the market expand beyond its traditional confines of goods and services? Should more immigration be allowed? Wider effects like social harmony, repugnance and morality should also be considered. Though the extended analysis does not provide a definite general answer, in combination with the first theorem of welfare economics and the principle of treating a dollar as a dollar in specific issues, it provides some general propositions that guide the analysis of relevant costs and benefits of specific policy changes beyond narrow economic efficiency. Disclosure/AcknowledgmentThe author confirms no conflict of interest and wishes to thank Nanyang Technological University for general research support and to Zhang CHEN and Yan WANG for research assistance.

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Generalized Morality, Institutions and Economic Growth, and the Intermediating Role of Generalized Trust

Cited by 57 publications

References 75 publications

Sunlight, Disease, and Institutions

Sunlight, Disease, and Institutions

Historical Prevalence of Infectious Diseases, Cultural Values, and the Origins of Economic Institutions

Extending Economic Analysis to Analyze Policy Issues More Broadly

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