Alia Luria

The Relationship Between Economic Growth and Culture Alia Luria

Culture and its effect on economic growth is a topic of increasing interest to economists. Past attempts to determine cultural characteristics that correlate with economic growth have been problematic due to the difficulty in finding objective criteria for measuring culture. This study examines the relationship between culture and economics using different methods while comparing Japan and the United States. Method one applies specific data to a pre-existing cultural index model. Method two attempts to determine whether difference in the economic openness of a nation has any correlation with per capita GDP. Method three considers a game theory model for bargaining between countries with differing economic openness. Even though none of these three models are able to definitively link specific, measurable effects of culture to economic growth, this book should help those in the field of economics who are interested in studying cultural variables by providing background on existing cultural indices and a basic framework for regression analysis.