Do market societies undermine civic morality? An empirical investigation into market societies and civic morality across the globe

Although the market is often praised as a wealth-creating coordination system, it is also repeatedly criticized for undermining morality. We empirically examine whether exposure to markets is associated with lower levels of civic morality, i.e. the responsibility and respect of the individual towards society's rules and the public good. Because most prior research lacks generalizability, we scrutinize the relationship between markets and individuals’ civic morality in a large set of highly culturally and institutionally diverse countries and regions. Multilevel analyses of cross-country individual-level survey data indicate a robust positive relationship between market exposure and civic morality. We find that subnational regions and countries experiencing an increase in market activity also experience an increase in individuals' civic morality. Our results suggest that the mechanism behind this relation works through the fairness of the market process. We conclude that there is no empirical evidence suggesting that markets undermine civic morality

Work ethic and economic development: an investigation into Weber's thesis

This paper argues that the capitalist spirit associated with Max Weber’s Protestant Ethics is not associated with Protestantism but with the modernization phase of economic development. A preference for hard work is also found amongst other religions and non-religious people at times of high economic growth and decreases after the modernization phase. We find a robust relationship between the level and growth of economic development during an individual’s childhood and this individual’s work ethic. An epidemiological approach is applied to indicate that the direction of the relationship runs from growth and the level of economic development at the time values are formed, to work ethic. Protestant adherence has a positive relation with work ethic, but this relation is less robust than economic development

Gender equality and life satisfaction: A mediation model with individual autonomy, income per capita and trust

Gender equality has been found to positively affect life satisfaction. However, the reason why gender equality affects life satisfaction remains relatively unexplored. In this paper, we hypothesize three mediators for this relationship: individual autonomy, income per capita, and generalized trust. All three variables have been found to positively affect life satisfaction. We argue that each mediator may, in turn, depend positively on gender equality, suggesting that individual autonomy, income per capita, and generalized trust positively mediate the relationship between gender equality and life satisfaction. Using a sample of 81 countries from 1990 to 2020, we find that individual autonomy and income per capita are important channels that together explain 98% of the total relationship between gender equality and life satisfaction. While the mediation effect of individual autonomy is robust, the significance of income per capita is less consistent when using alternative estimation techniques. For generalized trust we do not find evidence of mediation