Three Essays on Cultural Economics

Abstract

This dissertation explores the economic impact of cultural factors.

Chapter 1, co-authored with Zhongqi Deng and Tingfan Gao, examines how culture influences economics. We focus on the role of clan culture, a specific form of collectivism, in facilitating local economic development at the prefecture level. We find that clan culture encourages asset accumulation over consumption, leading to increased investment, lower interest rates, and more innovations. These factors contribute to higher income and reduced inequality in a general equilibrium, as demonstrated through a standard growth model.

Chapter 2 delves into the evolution of culture, specifically people's intrinsic motivation for cooperation. By synthesizing insights from repeated-game theory, meta-analyses of laboratory experiments, and observational studies across countries, I discover that voluntary mobility--the freedom to choose one's social interactions--enhances cooperative preferences, whereas involuntary (exogenous) mobility diminishes them. This is because voluntary mobility allows cooperative individuals to leave uncooperative friends and stay with similarly cooperative peers, thereby encouraging the society to become cooperative in the long run. Conversely, involuntary mobility disrupts this process. The chapter also explores how geographical variations contribute to differing levels of voluntary mobility and, consequently, variations in cooperative tendencies among societies.

Chapter 3, a collaboration with Yihong Huang and Yixi Jiang, investigates how behavioral mechanisms can be employed to modify people's behaviors. We conduct a field experiment on a Chinese social media platform to influence career choices concerning civil service. Participants exposed to repetitive negative information about civil service careers, as opposed to a single exposure, develop more negative perceptions, despite being aware of the repetition. This influences significant decisions, such as opting out of civil service examinations, demonstrating the real-world existence of correlation neglect--a behavioral bias where apparently correlated information is treated as independent.