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来源类型 | Working Paper |
规范类型 | 报告 |
DOI | 10.3386/w25430 |
来源ID | Working Paper 25430 |
Folklore | |
Stelios Michalopoulos; Melanie Meng Xue | |
发表日期 | 2019-01-14 |
出版年 | 2019 |
语种 | 英语 |
摘要 | Folklore is the collection of traditional beliefs, customs, and stories of a community passed through the generations by word of mouth. We introduce to economics a unique catalogue of oral traditions spanning approximately 1,000 societies. After validating the catalogue’s content by showing that the groups’ motifs reflect known geographic and social attributes, we present two sets of applications. First, we illustrate how to fill in the gaps and expand upon a group’s ethnographic record, focusing on political complexity, high gods, and trade. Second, we discuss how machine learning and human-classification methods can help shed light on cultural traits, using gender roles, attitudes towards risk, and trust as examples. Societies with tales portraying men as dominant and women as submissive tend to relegate their women to subordinate positions in their communities, both historically and today. More risk-averse and less entrepreneurial people grew up listening to stories where competitions and challenges are more likely to be harmful than beneficial. Communities with low tolerance towards antisocial behavior, captured by the prevalence of tricksters getting punished, are more trusting and prosperous today. These patterns hold across groups, countries, and second- generation immigrants. Overall, the results highlight the significance of folklore in cultural economics, calling for additional applications. |
主题 | History ; Other ; Culture |
URL | https://www.nber.org/papers/w25430 |
来源智库 | National Bureau of Economic Research (United States) |
引用统计 | |
资源类型 | 智库出版物 |
条目标识符 | http://119.78.100.153/handle/2XGU8XDN/583104 |
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714 | Stelios Michalopoulos,Melanie Meng Xue. Folklore. 2019. |
条目包含的文件 | ||||||
文件名称/大小 | 资源类型 | 版本类型 | 开放类型 | 使用许可 | ||
w25430.pdf(2696KB) | 智库出版物 | 限制开放 | CC BY-NC-SA | 浏览 |
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