Economics and Culture: Is the Context Considered?

This paper reviews the recent literature on economics and culture to investigate whether and how it considers the context. It first describes how culture reentered the economic literature from 1990s onwards. It then presents empirical studies on the relation between culture, institutions and economic performance. Thereafter, the role of culture for economic change as well as the historical roots of cultural differences are investigated. Finally, the question whether these approaches are contextual is answered, and recommendations are made for enhancing a cultural / contextual view on economics when appropriate.