http://www.cato-unbound.org/2006/12/06/gregory-clark/the-universal-culture-of-progress/ Big Ideas for a Better World Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:09:50 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 http://www.cato-unbound.org/2006/12/06/gregory-clark/the-universal-culture-of-progress/#comment-82390 Will Wilkinson / The Fly Bottle » Blog Archive » Claim of the Day Fri, 29 Jun 2007 16:55:09 +0000 http://www.cato-unbound.org/2006/12/06/gregory-clark/the-universal-culture-of-progress/#comment-82390 [...] Well, in Clark’s contribution to the Cato Unbound discussion of the relative importance of policy, culture, and institutions in economic development, he wrote:   … attempts to introduce culture into economic discussions so far have been generally either ad hoc, vacuous, blatantly false, or void of testability. If culture is a key to growth, the fear is that economists will be reduced to rooting about in the intellectual undergrowth with people we hold in low esteem: qualitative sociologists and cultural anthropologists. Since we have no idea of how cultures develop, or how to change cultures, to admit the primacy of culture may be to admit the defeat of the entire economics project. [...] […] Well, in Clark’s contribution to the Cato Unbound discussion of the relative importance of policy, culture, and institutions in economic development, he wrote:   … attempts to introduce culture into economic discussions so far have been generally either ad hoc, vacuous, blatantly false, or void of testability. If culture is a key to growth, the fear is that economists will be reduced to rooting about in the intellectual undergrowth with people we hold in low esteem: qualitative sociologists and cultural anthropologists. Since we have no idea of how cultures develop, or how to change cultures, to admit the primacy of culture may be to admit the defeat of the entire economics project. […]

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