Beliefs and Economic Growth: Cross- National Evidence Based on the World Values Survey (WVS)

5月 24, 2017

Jiang Shuguang (姜树广) and Sun Tao (孙涛)

Center for Economic Research, Shandong University, Jinan; Postdoctoral Research Program of Shenzhen Stock Exchange,

Shenzhen, China

Center for Economic Research, Shandong University, Jinan, China

Abstract: This paper is concerned with the relationship between beliefs and economic

performance and explains the differences of country performance in global economic

growth over the past two decades based on the composite belief index comprising the beliefs

on trust, social justice, competition and work-leisure. By inﬂuencing personal motivations,

beliefs shape society and the institutions and policies of a country in the form of collective

ideology. Beliefs demonstrate great differences across countries and change with time,

which helps explain the country and intertemporal differences of growth. This paper

also found that China’s composite belief index is very high, which helps explain China’s

economic growth miracle.

Keywords: belief, cultural, economic growth, World Values Survey (WVS)

JEL Classiﬁcation: Z10, O47, Z13