Suchergebnisse

IN THIS ARTICLE CULTURAL VARIABLES ARE INCORPORATED INTO A BASELINE ENDOGENOUS ECONOMIC GROWTH MODEL. IT ARGUES THAT CULTURAL ATTITUDES TOWARD ACHIEVEMENT AND THRIFT HAVE A POSITIVE EFFECT ON ECONOMIC GROWTH. CULTURAL ATTITUDES CONCERNING POSTMATERIALISM HAVE A NEGATIVE EFFECT ON ECONOMIC GROWTH. THE AUTHORS USED ORDINARY LEAST SQUARES REGRESSION TO TEST ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL MODELS OF GROWTH ON A CROSS SECTION OF 25 COUNTRIES. THE "ENCOMPASSING' PRINCIPLE IS USED TO RESOLVE COMPETING THEORETICAL SPECIFICATIONS AND TO GENERATE A FINAL PARSIMONIOUS MODEL. A VARIANT OF LEAMER'S EXTREME BOUNDS ANALYSIS (EBA) IS USED TO EVALUATE THE SENSITIVITY OF PARAMETER ESTIMATES. THE CONCLUSIONS ARE FURTHER SUPPORTED BY NONPARAMETRIC METHODS INCLUDING ROBUST REGRESSION AND BOOTSTRAP RESAMPLING. THE DATA FOR THE ANALYSIS ARE FROM THE WORLD VALUES SURVEY (199) AND FROM LEVINE AND RENELT (1992). THEY CONCLUDE THAT AN EMPIRICAL MODEL THAT INCORPORATES BOTH CULTURAL AND ECONOMIC VARIABLES IS SUPERIOR TO AN EXPLANATION EMPHASIZING ONE SET OF THESE VARIABLES. THE FINAL MODEL IS ROBUST TO: (1) ALTERATIONS IN THE CONDITIONING SET OF VARIABLES; (2) ELIMINATION OF INFLUENTIAL CASES; AND (3) VARIATIONS IN ESTIMATION PROCEDURES.

THE PRESENT ANALYSIS USES DATA FROM 1974 AND 1981 U. S. CROSS SECTIONS, WHICH INCORPORATE A PANEL, TO COMPARE THE STANDARD NES MEASURE OF PARTY IDENTIFICATION (ID) WITH A MEASURE OF PARTISANSHIP DERIVED FROM A PARTY CLOSENESS QUESTION WIDELY EMPLOYED IN CROSS-NATIONAL RESEARCH. IMPORTANT FEATURES OF THE TWO SCALES ARE EXAMINED BY TRANSFORMING THE CLOSENESS MEASURE INTO A SCALE OF VERY CLOSE, FAIRLY CLOSE, NOT VERY CLOSE, AND NO PREFERENCE CORRESPONDING TO THE SEVEN-POINT ID SCALE. THE SCALES ARE HIGHLY CORRELATED AND ARE SIMILAR IN THEIR RELIABILITY. MORE THAN 75% OF THE "INDEPENDENTS" IN THE ID SCALE CHOOSE A PARTY IN THE CLOSENESS VERSION, AND OVER HALF OF THESE SELECT THE "FAIRLY CLOSE" CATEGORY. RESPONDENTS DO NOT VOLUNTEER THAT THEY ARE INDEPENDENTS WHEN THAT ALTERNATIVE IS NOT STATED IN THE QUESTION.