How Cultures Shape Economies. Differences in Preferences for Redistribution in the USA and Europe

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2020 in the subject Business economics - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,0, University of Passau, course: International Cultural and Business Studies, language: English, abstract: There is a remarkable difference in preferences for redistribution in Europe compared to the USA. Various authors have already attempted to explain this difference and provide empirical data on the matter, indicating that cultural and historical contrasts lead to different preferences. The topic of this paper is the question of how these differences can be explained by cultural imprints. Research shows that redistributive preferences are influenced by views on fairness, the level of altruism and beliefs about income mobility and efficiency. Cultural predispositions can shed light on contrasting fairness views and divergent social beliefs. Therefore, cultural theories and core cultural concepts such as American Exceptionalism will be introduced in order to enable an interpretation of economic research papers on redistribution from a cultural perspective. By combining the findings of cultural, as well as economical literature a new perspective and different understanding of the reasons for contrasting redistributive preferences can be gained.