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A social turn--Hard work and black swans 

To explain wealth and poverty, the ideas of the earliest economists are being revisited and improved

But an interest in culture remained and indeed is now making a comeback. Since the 198os datasets such as the World Values Survey and the General Social Survey have made it easier to quantitatively measure cultural preferences and relate them to economic outcomes. Top economic journals now regularly include papers on the importance of culture. Even many hardline wonks have come to realise the limits to pure economic reasoning.

wonk  n. /wɒŋk/

1. 一味苦干的人；书呆子；2. 死抠政策细枝末节的人 •the President's chief economic policy wonk 总统的首席经济问题策士

Perhaps the most influential text in the revival of cultural economics was “Making Democracy Work”, a book from 1993 by Robert Putnam. Mr Putnam tried to understand why for many decades northern Italy had been richer than the south, folding the explanation under the catch-all term social capital People in the south were fiercely loyal to their family, but more distrustful of outsiders whereas in the north people were happier to form connections with strangers, Mr Putnam argued. In the north people read more newspapers, were more likely to participate in sports and cultural associations, and voted more frequently in referendums. This, the theory went, contributed to better local government and more efficient economic transactions, which in turn produced greater wealth though Mr Putnam was not clear about the precise mechanism by which one thing led to the other.

referendum  n. /ˌrefəˈrendəm/  ~ (on sth)  全民投票；全民公决• Ireland decided to hold a referendum on divorce. 爱尔兰决定就离婚问题进行全民投票。

A group of researchers, largely dominated by Italians who were inspired by Mr Putnam’s work, has since extended his ideas, seeking cultural explanations of why some areas are rich and others poor. A paper from 2004 by Luigi Guiso, Paola Sapienza and Luigi Zingales, also looking at Italy, finds that in high-social-capital areas, households invest less in cash and more in stocks, and make less use of informal credit. In areas where people do not really trust those outside their family, it may be hard to form large business organisations which can benefit from economies of scale and which can drive the adoption of new technologies. This suggests that it is no coincidence that the average business in Lombardy, a rich northern region in Italy, has 13 employees, compared with five in Calabria, a poor southern one.

social-capital：根据世界银行社会资本协会(the world bank's social capital initiative)的界定,广义的社会资本是指政府和市民社会为了一个组织的相互利益而采取的集体行动,该组织小至一个家庭,大至一个国家。

 Lombardy：伦巴第大区（意大利地名）    Calabria：卡拉布利亚（意大利地名）

Others look beyond Italy. In “A Culture of Growth”, published in 2016, Joel Mokyr of Northwestern University puts the “principle of contestability” as the reason why some countries industrialised but others did not. Organisations such as the Royal Society, founded in London in 1660, were forums for the exchange• of ideas, where people put forward their discoveries and fiercely interrogated the theories of others. Crucially, too, over time the goal of western European science shifted from one concerned with the “mindless piling up of empirical facts”, as Mr Mokyr puts it, towards discoveries which could be put to use in the real world. Scientific inquiry laid the groundwork for European economic exceptionalism. Nothing quite comparable happened in other parts of the world.

 Contestability：可竞争性

interrogate v.   /ɪnˈterəɡeɪt/  1.讯问；审问；盘问 •He was interrogated by the police for over 12 hours. 他被警察审问了12个多小时。2.( technical 术语 )（在计算机或其他机器上）查询，询问

Culture club

The revival of cultural explanations for wealth and poverty seems to be a methodological step forward. Yet it raises two big questions. The first concerns the origins of cultural traits: where do they come from? The second is why people from apparently similar cultures sometimes have very different economic outcomes. To answer these questions, economists have come to appreciate the importance of history and, in particular, historical accident.

Revival  n. /rɪˈvaɪvl/  

1.（状况或力量的）进步，振兴，复苏 •the revival of trade 贸易振兴 •an economic revival 经济复苏

2.复兴；再流行 •a religious revival 宗教的奋兴

3.（戏剧的）重演 •a revival of Peter Shaffer's ‘Equus’ 彼得•谢弗的《马》的重演

Take first the question of the origin of cultural traits. Some research suggests that they are the product of changes which took place hundreds of years ago. A 2013 paper by the late Alberto Ales ma and two of his colleagues looks at why countries have very different rates of female labour-force participation. Egypt and Namibia are about as rich as each other, but the share of Namibian women in the labour force is more than twice that of Egyptian women. The paper puts such differences largely down to differences in pre-industrial agriculture and environmental conditions. Plough cultivation, common in Egypt, required lots of upper-body strength so men were at an advantage. Shifting cultivation, more common in Namibia, used hand-held tools like the hoe which suited women better. The effect of these agricultural technologies echoes in statistics today.

Namibia /nəˈmɪbiə/ 纳米比亚（非洲南部国家）

plough  /plaʊ/  名词 1. 犁；2.the Plough ( BrE ) 北斗七星；大熊星座  动词 1. 犁（田）；耕（地）；翻（土）•ploughed fields 犁过的田地

习语：

1. plough a lonely, your own, etc., ˈfurrow 自耕孤畴（指自行其是或自得其乐）

2. under the ˈplough： ( of land 土地 ) 用于耕作的；作农田的

译文

But an interest in culture remained and indeed is now making a comeback. Since the 198os datasets such as the World Values Survey and the General Social Survey have made it easier to quantitatively measure cultural preferences and relate them to economic outcomes. Top economic journals now regularly include papers on the importance of culture. Even many hardline wonks have come to realise the limits to pure economic reasoning.

但是对文化的兴趣依旧存在，如今东山再起。从上世纪八十年代，数据集如“世界价值标准调查”、“一般社会调查”等让文化因素更容易用定量方式衡量文化偏好与经济结果。顶级经济学杂志现在也经常刊登强调文化重要性的文章。甚至很多强硬的学究也意识到纯粹经济推论的局限。

Perhaps the most influential text in the revival of cultural economics was “Making Democracy Work”, a book from 1993 by Robert Putnam. Mr Putnam tried to understand why for many decades northern Italy had been richer than the south, folding the explanation under the catch-all term social capital People in the south were fiercely loyal to their family, but more distrustful of outsiders whereas in the north people were happier to form connections with strangers, Mr Putnam argued. In the north people read more newspapers, were more likely to participate in sports and cultural associations, and voted more frequently in referendums. This, the theory went, contributed to better local government and more efficient economic transactions, which in turn produced greater wealth though Mr Putnam was not clear about the precise mechanism by which one thing led to the other.

或许文化经济学复兴最有影响力的主题是“使民主运转”，1993年罗伯特·普特曼所著之书。普特曼先生几十年来一直尝试解释为什么意大利北部比南部富裕，他将原因归于宽泛的概念“社会资本”--意大利南部人对家族非常忠诚但缺乏对外来人士的信任而北部人很喜欢结交外来人士。北部人更加喜欢阅读报纸、喜欢参加运动和文化组织，更积极的投票参与社会活动。这是普特曼理论解释的地方，这些群体行为有助于更好的地方治理和有效的经济交易，从而创造更多的财富。虽然普特曼并不了解双方究竟谁是因果及精确的运行机制。

A group of researchers, largely dominated by Italians who were inspired by Mr Putnam’s work, has since extended his ideas, seeking cultural explanations of why some areas are rich and others poor. A paper from 2004 by Luigi Guiso, Paola Sapienza and Luigi Zingales, also looking at Italy, finds that in high-social-capital areas, households invest less in cash and more in stocks, and make less use of informal credit. In areas where people do not really trust those outside their family, it may be hard to form large business organisations which can benefit from economies of scale and which can drive the adoption of new technologies. This suggests that it is no coincidence that the average business in Lombardy, a rich northern region in Italy, has 13 employees, compared with five in Calabria, a poor southern one.

一群学者，大部分是意大利学者被普特曼研究所启发，开始拓展他的观点，寻找地区贫富差距的文化解释。2004年Luigi Guiso, Paola Sapienza 和Luigi Zingales三人的论文，也是研究意大利，发现社会资本高度发展的区域，家庭现金投资少，股份多，不经常使用非正规信贷。而在不怎么相信亲人之外的区域比较难发展大的商业组织。这些商业组织能够从规模经济中获利并且推动新科技的应用。这表明伦巴第（意大利行政区名）富有并且平均企业雇员13人，而卡拉布利亚（意大利行政区名）相对贫穷，平均企业雇员5人并不是巧合。

Others look beyond Italy. In “A Culture of Growth”, published in 2016, Joel Mokyr of Northwestern University puts the “principle of contestability” as the reason why some countries industrialised but others did not. Organisations such as the Royal Society, founded in London in 1660, were forums for the exchange• of ideas, where people put forward their discoveries and fiercely interrogated the theories of others. Crucially, too, over time the goal of western European science shifted from one concerned with the “mindless piling up of empirical facts”, as Mr Mokyr puts it, towards discoveries which could be put to use in the real world. Scientific inquiry laid the groundwork for European economic exceptionalism. Nothing quite comparable happened in other parts of the world.

其他的学者研究不局限于意大利。在2016年发表的《增长的文化》一文中，西北大学Joel Mokyr 将“可竞争性法则”列为一些国家能够工业化的原因。例如英国皇家学会，1660年伦敦成立，初衷是建立交流论坛，这里的人提出自己的发现，激情咨询着他人的理论。经过多年发展，像这类组织在西欧科学从“无意识的经验积累科学”转向可以进入应用现实社会的发现科学起到了关键作用。科学探究为欧洲经济的例外性奠定了基石。在世界其他地方没有发生过类似的事情。

Culture club

The revival of cultural explanations for wealth and poverty seems to be a methodological step forward. Yet it raises two big questions. The first concerns the origins of cultural traits: where do they come from? The second is why people from apparently similar cultures sometimes have very different economic outcomes. To answer these questions, economists have come to appreciate the importance of history and, in particular, historical accident.

文化释义贫富的复兴看起来像是方法论的前进。但它提出了两个问题。第一个关注点是文化特质的起源：他们从何而来？第二个是为什么相似文化区域的人有时会产生截然不同的经济结果？为回答这些问题，经济学家们需要感谢历史，尤其是历史偶变。

Take first the question of the origin of cultural traits. Some research suggests that they are the product of changes which took place hundreds of years ago. A 2013 paper by the late Alberto Ales ma and two of his colleagues looks at why countries have very different rates of female labour-force participation. Egypt and Namibia are about as rich as each other, but the share of Namibian women in the labour force is more than twice that of Egyptian women. The paper puts such differences largely down to differences in pre-industrial agriculture and environmental conditions. Plough cultivation, common in Egypt, required lots of upper-body strength so men were at an advantage. Shifting cultivation, more common in Namibia, used hand-held tools like the hoe which suited women better. The effect of these agricultural technologies echoes in statistics today.

第一个问题文化特质的起源。一些研究认为这是历史变化的结果。2013年Alberto Ales ma 与他的两位同事发表论文，他们研究为什么国家的女性就业率存在巨大的差异。埃及与纳米比亚国家财力相当，但是纳米比亚的女性劳力占比是埃及的两倍以上。论文认为该差距主要由工业化前的农业及环境造成的。用犁耕作，埃及很普遍，需要大量的上肢力量，这样男性具有优势。伦垦，纳米比亚很普遍，用手持工具，如锄头等与女性比较契合。这些早前农业技术的应用造成的影响与现今的统计遥相呼应。（up主觉得这个学者的例子有些不符合，①用锄头并不是女性更合适，而是相较于以前，女性用起来更容易，其实还是男性更合适。②埃及的宗教对女性就业的影响更强一些。个人观点。）