Question

how does Culture  affect an economy in many different ways?

Answer 1

Culture can affect economy in many ways. Few of these are shown with examples below:

Cultures of different religions: it is seen that culture of different regions effects the economy and the working conditions in an economy. Example: some religions or countries do not allow the women to work outside their homes. In such countries or countries where such religions are in majority, it is seen that female participation rate in labour force is less . Also women who work get either unequal wages or face discrimination in male majority work places. In such cases , the GDP growth would be less because the work women do is taken as household work which is not accounted in terms of money and hence not included in gdp. The equality index would also be less in such countries.

Another cultural factor could be the types of family units: if close and joint families is the culture of a country, the children are usually brought up at home and with grandparents helping in their upbringing. This would mean less of child care centres and probably healthy lifestyles, less of junk food and more rooted growth of Individuals. They would probably value family more and leisure hours would be more .

Another cultural factor could be savings rate: if the culture in the economy is to save more or more thrifty individuals live in the country, it would give a boost to the economy's savings. This would mean a higher growth rate and more investments which would increase the GDP.

If the country has the culture to buy more of luxury goods and have more consumption than savings, then the scenario would be different.

If the economy has higher rates of discrimination ie the culture is such that the rich are favoured or the women, poor and other vulnerable groups feel alienated then there would be more inequality a higher unemployment and poverty rates persisting in the economy.

If the culture of the economy is more inclined towards higher education that is less jobs are available at high school education there would be more incidence of people going for higher education .This would help reduce poverty increase awareness and improve the sanitation in health facilities of the country.

So these are a few ways in which culture can affect the economy.