Economic Growth: Role of Social and Cultural Factors

Economic growth is a serious concern for all nations and societies. Even developed economies such as those in the United States, Japan, and Western Europe frequently experience problems associated with economic growth. For the most part among these economies, however, the causes of such problems tend to be cyclical in character, and the variations in long-term economic growth among developed economies are relatively modest, although one is led to believe by proponents of one theory or another that such variations are enormous. As developed economies at times do not grow and recede in lockstep, however, there is always room for friendly (and sometimes unfriendly disagreement). The strand of unity among the developed economies is shared cultural and societal values that foster independence, freedom, and economic growth. This relatively upbeat assessment, however, cannot be widely applied among the developing economies of the world (Siegle, Weinstein, & Halperin, 2004).

There are some notable exceptions among developing economies wherein some developing economies have achieved commendatory levels of economic growth - at least for short periods of time. Further, some developing economies have been successful in putting themselves on what appear to be sustainable paths of economic growth. For many (perhaps most) developing economies, however, the path to economic grow

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rder to form a population into human capital, however, resources must be allocated to the task. For all countries, and, particularly, for developing countries, the allocation of resources to the development of human capital means that some other sector of the economy or of the society will be deprived, to some extent, in the short-run. In the long-run, of course, all other factors remaining equal, the economy of the country will ultimately benefit from the formation of a population into human capital (Thirlwall, 1995). The development of a population into human capital, however, does not mean that a country will be capable of effectively employing all of the available human capital. If the land of the country does not provide the resources required for intensive industrial development, a surplus of human capital will be created by improving the productivity of agriculture. Low productivity agriculture creates a useful purpose for a large population that cannot be accommodated by industrial development (Thirlwall, 1995). The financial capital of a country is typically considered to be those goods which yield no immediate utility but which are capable of producing goods that may yield utility. In this context, financial capi
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Approximate Word count = 3632
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page)

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