Cultural Beliefs and the Organization of Society: A Historical and Theoretical Reflection on Collectivist and Individualist Societies

@article{Greif1994CulturalBA,
  title={Cultural Beliefs and the Organization of Society: A Historical and Theoretical Reflection on Collectivist and Individualist Societies},
  author={Avner Greif},
  journal={Journal of Political Economy},
  year={1994},
  volume={102},
  pages={912 - 950}
}
  • A. Greif
  • Published 1 October 1994
  • Economics
  • Journal of Political Economy
Lacking an appropriate theoretical framework, economists and economic historians have paid little attention to the relations between culture and institutional structure. This limits the ability to address a question that seems to be at the heart of developmental failures: Why do societies fail to adopt the institutional structure of more economically successful ones? This paper integrates game-theoretical and sociological concepts to conduct a comparative historical analysis of the relations… Expand
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