Does Culture Affect Economic Outcomes?

According to the authors, economists have been reluctant to rely on culture as a possible determinant of economic phenomena. The notion of culture is so broad and the channels through which it can enter the economic discourse so vague that it is difficult to design testable hypotheses. In this paper, the authors show this does need to be the case. They introduce a narrower definition of culture that allows for a simple methodology to develop and test cultural-based explanations.