I looked at a Wall Street Journal article that started with “People from cultures that emphasize productive habits tend to advance. The reverse is also true.” Then it went on to describe Thomas Sowell’s role “Thomas Sowell, whose legacy was celebrated recently at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, changed that. He was among the first economists to treat culture as an important economic variable. Mr. Sowell has argued that both human capital and culture drive mobility—more so, in his view, than discrimination or external barriers. Groups that develop productivity-enhancing traits such as skills, an orientation toward education and work, and thriftiness tend to advance. Those whose cultures don’t emphasize these things tend to fall behind. In Mr. Sowell’s view, culture is a form of capital, an accumulation of habits and know-how that powerfully influences a group’s progress.” https://www.wsj.com/opinion/the-economics-of-culture-29c337f2?st=aq7c3x
As much as I like and respect Dr. Sowell’s work, I have to look back at Max Weber’s book – The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism – as the start of recognizing culture as a part of economics. Weber saw a relationship between Calvinism and the capitalist entrepreneur, a relationship between Pietism and the faithful laborer or clerk. Weber’s book is available online at https://gpde.direito.ufmg.br/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MAX-WEBER.pdf
One of my areas recognized on the doctorate is Cultural Ecology – Science Direct defines cultural ecology as the study of the processes by which a society adapts to its environment, focusing on whether these adaptations lead to internal social transformations or evolutionary change. It encompasses themes such as cultural adaptation, agricultural stability, and the relationships between nature and society. Cultural Ecology began with Dr. Julian Steward and is probably the most American of anthropology theories. With a background in Steward’s Cultural Ecology, and Weberian Sociology, Sowell’s beliefs that culture affects – maybe even drives – economics seems solidly based.
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