Economy and Culture

Abstract

Culture matters in the economy. An increasing number of economists acknowledge the role of culture in economic processes, yet they disagree on what that role is. This chapter reviews the most important contributions to the discussion about the interaction between cultural and economic phenomena on the basis of a five-spheres model. The conclusion stands: culture matters. Yet the complexity of the interaction renders causal claims almost impossible. Furthermore, culture is not an instrument to change at will in order to achieve certain results. The outcome of the discussion is rather a reorientation of what economics is about, and a realization that sense-making is part of the economic process. Economists may conclude that they pay better attention to the qualitative aspects of the economy, and adjust their mode of analysis to allow for such attention.