Culture and Economic Action

Culture has been a relatively understudied subject within economics. Economists who have studied it often conceive culture as a form of capital, treating it as a set of tools or a resource that certain groups possess and other groups do not. Austrian economics, in contrast, is a science of human behavior that is primarily concerned with making sense of meaningful human action. Because of this, Austrian economists are particularly well suited to inject cultural considerations into economic analysis. This edited volume, a collection of both theoretical essays and empirical studies, presents an Austrian economics perspective on the role of culture in economic action. The authors illustrate that culture cannot be separated from economic action, but that it is in fact part of all decision-making. Culture and Economic Actionis an enlightening cross-disciplinary exploration that will appeal to all scholars in the social sciences, from anthropologists to economists. Contributors: P.D. Aligica, P.J. Boettke, E. Chamlee-Wright, B. Colon, C.J. Coyne, L.E. Grube, A. John, R. Langrill, D. Lavoie, P.T. Leeson, A. Matei, K.W. O'Donnell, P. Runst, S. Stein, V.H. Storr