Before diving into the intersection of culture and economics, we must understand the term 'culture' alone. I've been independently studying culture and its development for nearly 4 years, and when tasked with defining it, even I struggled to come up with "the right answer."

Upon hearing ‘culture,’ ethnic traditions and origin are often the first to come to mind. In reality, this one term is a culmination of almost every aspect of an individual’s life:

• Families
• Social institutions and customs
• Education
• Neighborhood
• Exposure to media
• Division of labor
• The adults surrounding children during key phases of brain development

So, 'culture' means everything. It’s hard to put a concrete definition on an omnipresent concept that has influenced every aspect of life as we know it today. Culture is defined by Texas A&M University as behavior that has been cultivated through social learning. Another report from the same source defines it as systems of knowledge and ways of life communicated by a group of people for generations.

Without a consensus on a definition, for many years, economists found it difficult to form hypotheses regarding the intersection of culture and society. The recent development in data collection methods has allowed historians, anthropologists, and economists to clearly identify people’s beliefs and cultural trends. Still, a term with such unclear boundaries and ubiquitous nature is bound to mean different things depending on its context. So, it’s necessary to define culture with a focused lens before we proceed. The way I'll interpret it.  

Three professors–Luigi Guiso (University of Rome Tor Vergata), Paola Sapienza (Northwestern University), and Luigi Zingales (University of Chicago)–studied the impact of cultural aspects on economic outcomes. They defined culture as the beliefs that ethnic, religious, and social groups traditionally pursue. The ethnicity, race, and social values of an individual that have existed for generations before them are rooted in their behaviors, and greatly determine their practices and financial habits. Culture on its own is vast, exists in many modes, and is an ever changing indicator of a person’s beliefs; therefore, piggybacking on the three professors’ definitions and focusing on the values that have been passed down by generation, for the purpose of my blog, we can specifically focus on ethnic and religious cultural aspects. 

Still, even after being defined, cultural aspects have historically been omitted from economic reports because we hadn’t found ways to analyze a seemingly boundless concept. This changed in 1970, when George Gerbner launched a nationwide project focusing on the impact of violence in television on society. Gerbner analyzed the frequency of violent actions and subsequent negative reactions from viewers. Seeing the study’s influence on television directors, policy makers, and greater society, relying on these fact-based metrics became a popular methodology for studying socioeconomic implications. This research is widely known as the analysis of cultural indicators, or quantifiable measurements that can be used to assess the state of a social or cultural group.

There are countless cultural indicators that I've become familiar with over the years. Here's just a few of them that I'll probably mention throughout my blog posts:

• Culture in GDP

Culture is a calculated sector of the GDP of many nations. This demonstrates culture's importance in growing revenue-generating businesses, creating jobs, and supporting communities--and economists' growing focus on it.

• Literacy rates within a culture

Literacy rates of a region reflect the importance that certain cultures place on education. Oftentimes, the economies of countries with higher literacy rates and greater importance on education perform significantly better. According to UNESCO, literacy is often an indicator of digital skills, media literacy, global communication, and sustainable development. With these skills, individuals are able to advance their human capital and businesses have better outreach, boosting market development.

• Data on religious beliefs

Many sociologists have reached the conclusion that for practicing individuals, religion is the driver of most values. In the past, religion has triggered cultural change and caused groups to corroborate, or separate. Many aspects of culture can vary from person to person, but oftentimes, those who follow the same religion have many shared values, making religion an accurate grouping to consider when analyzing the culture of a community

• Language diversity

Words and their origins reveals the historical influences on a region. The Language Diversity Index measures abundance of languages and dialects on a scale of 0 to 1. Some countries have high linguistic diversity because of their position on trade routes, which is essential information to consider when looking at the economic history of a region (ex: Kazakhstan on the Silk Road). High linguistic diversities can also be credited to an abundance of ethnicities. Lower linguistic diversity signals a homogenous country (ex: Japan)

• Average family size

A large household size is more prominent in rural areas, where access to pregnancy planning and education is limited. Upper classes tend to have a smaller family size.

• Age demographics

How old the people of a nation are tells you more than you could possibly imagine. By analyzing demographic statistics like the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), Total Fertility Rate (TFR), and the shape of age structure diagrams, we can closely pinpoint the exact stage of development a nation is in.

Throughout my blog posts, I'll be using a variety of methods to assess how Asian culture has contributed to Asia's economic development. Analyzing cultural indicators is just one of them. We must understand that many aspects of culture are not revealed by indicators, or numbers. In reality, it's difficult to explain how 9th century Daoism inspired trends in Chinese consumer behavior today using cultural indicators. But, they have allowed social scientists to delve into more analytical topics that cannot otherwise be explored.

So, by analyzing cultural indicators, explaining the traditional dynamics of a nation, and diving into the countless economics concepts I've collected in my brain since freshman year of high school, I hope to offer interesting reads and foster discourse about Asia's development. Feel free to disagree with me, or tell me that I need more research. I'm only scratching the surface of a vast topic that can have multiple angles and understandings. While sharing my knowledge with enthusiastic readers, I hope to learn more and grow as a researcher, writer, and student.

Stay tuned for more about how culture, the beliefs that ethnic, religious, and social groups traditionally pursue, has impacted Asian economic development. Thanks for reading!

References

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Bureau of Economic Analysis. (2024). Arts and cultural production satellite account, U.S. and states, 2022 | U.S. bureau of economic analysis (BEA). Www.bea.gov. https://www.bea.gov/news/2024/arts-and-cultural-production-satellite-account-us-and-states-2022

Centre, U. W. H. (2020). Culture|2030 indicators. UNESCO World Heritage Centre. https://whc.unesco.org/en/culture2030indicators/

Donald, R. L. (2024, June 21). Language diversity index. Education.nationalgeographic.org. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/language-diversity-index-map/

Findlay, R. (2019). Asia and the world economy in historical perspective. Asian Transformations, 80–106. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198844938.003.0004

Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development. (2024). NCCC: Curricula enhancement module series. Georgetown.edu. https://nccc.georgetown.edu/curricula/awareness/C10.html#:~:text=II.

Gerbner, G. (1970). Cultural Indicators: The Case of Violence in Television Drama. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 388(1), 69-81. https://doi.org/10.1177/000271627038800108

Guiso, Luigi, Paola Sapienza, and Luigi Zingales. 2006. "Does Culture Affect Economic Outcomes?" Journal of Economic Perspectives, 20 (2): 23–48.

Li, Julie & Su, Chenting. (2007). How Face Influences Consumption - A Comparative Study of American and Chinese Consumers. International Journal of Market Research. 49. 237-256. 10.1177/147078530704900207.

PBS. (2014). Teachers guide - muslims | teacher center | FRONTLINE | PBS. Pbs.org. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/teach/muslims/timeline.html

Ramirez, J. (2023). Cultural Indicators. Grantmakers in the Arts. https://www.giarts.org/article/cultural-indicators

Shavitt, S., & Cho, H. (2016). Culture and consumer behavior: The role of horizontal and vertical cultural factors. Current Opinion in Psychology, 8(PMC5222543), 149–154. ncbi. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.11.007

Texas A&M University. (2023). CULTURE. People.tamu.edu. https://people.tamu.edu/~i-choudhury/culture.html

The Brookings Institution. (2020). How cultural factors shape economic outcomes. Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/collection/how-cultural-factors-shape-economic-outcomes/

UNESCO. (2024, January 31). What you need to know about literacy. UNESCO. https://www.unesco.org/en/literacy/need-know

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