Project: Up-to-date Measures of Culture at the Country and Regional Level
Funder: Estonian Research Council, PRG380
Period: 2019-2022 (extended to 2023)
Main research staff:
Prof. Anneli Kaasa, Professor of Social and Cultural Studies in Economics, University of Tartu (webpage)
Prof. Michael Minkov, University of Tartu, Varna University of Management
Summary of the project:
First, the project mapped various existing models for measuring culture and data available from international surveys. The most important result from this stage is merging three most well-known cultural models (Hofstede, Schwartz, Inglehart) theoretically into one system.
Next, new indicators for measuring culture were calculated based on the WVS data. The scores for two dimensions: freedom-concern and responsibility-faith are based on data from entire populations and available for 115 countries (in Europe for within-country regions as well), for 6 periods between 1990 and 2020 and can be recalculated based on future waves of the WVS.
Further empirical analysis showed that this new set of cultural dimensions and various other two-dimensional cultural models (including Inglehart’s and revised Hofsede’s model) are all rotations of each-other. Including additional indicators from the WVS that were asked only in two waves, the elements of Schwartz’s model were also positioned into the system of different models.
It was also tested how well the created indicators of culture explain various social, political and economic phenomena, including in multiple separate studies with the result that new indicators of culture indeed have more explanatory power.
The results of the project are important for both researchers and practitioners. First, the provided indicators of culture can be used for characterising the cultural background of different countries (and regions), and second, regarding the possible impact of culture on other phenomena, the system created enables us to compare the results from previous studies where for example the impact of culture on some other phenomenon has been studied using different models to measure culture.