Why a book on culture in economics?

Culture matters! If there is a one-liner summarizing the rationale for this book, it is this one. Recently many economists have turned their attention to the role of culture and have included culture in their economic theories. This interest is also reflected in books by prominent scholars who have argued that a closer study of the role of culture in economics is required. For example, Nobel Prize winner Douglass North argues that culture is fundamentally related to economic outcomes. As North puts it in his most recent book on economic change: “Our task is to explain the diverse belief systems that have evolved historically and in the present, which have very different implications for structure, organization, and economic success of societies” (North 2005: 69). A similar plea for a closer analysis of culture can be found in Greif's 2006 seminal work on institutions and economic development (Greif 2006).