The Culture Crutch: Why 'Culture' Is a Faux Explanation

In a Substack essay, Alex Nowrasteh argues that invoking 'culture' as an explanation for social and economic phenomena is intellectually lazy. He contends that culture is endogenous to institutions, prices, and incentives, and that social scientists should instead search for material constraints. Nowrasteh cites examples: falling fertility is better explained by rising opportunity costs, not cultural shifts; UN diplomats' parking violations collapsed when enforcement began, showing price sensitivity; trust does not predict regional U.S. development; Japanese train usage stems from policy and land use, not culture; and Ghanaian funeral spending reflects kinship-based incentives, not reverence. He critiques famous cultural explanations—Max Weber's Protestant ethic, Inglehart's self-expression values, and Mokyr's culture of growth—showing they fail under scrutiny. Nowrasteh concludes that culture is a placeholder for real analysis, and researchers should exhaust price, incentive, and institutional explanations before invoking culture.