Adult economic model and values survey: Cross-national differences in economic beliefs

The present study investigated the extent to which the economic beliefs of participants from eight nations (Austria, France, Greece, Israel, New Zealand, Singapore, Slovenia, and Turkey) co-varied with national differences in economic development and modernisation. We predicted and found that greater human capital is associated with more economic self-efficacy and economic satisfaction; less civil social capital and more government social capital are allied with greater economic self-efficacy and favourable views of the business world; and that individuals in nations with higher levels of modernisation have more sympathetic views of the economy. In addition, the nations differed on all beliefs surveyed, although discriminant analysis revealed that these differences largely fell along two dimensions; (1) perception of economic unfairness and support for price controls, and (2) economic satisfaction, belief in just world, and opposition to social welfare. The first dimension is associated with less modernisation and less government social capital, and the second dimension is linked to greater modernisation, less civil social capital, and more government social capital. Implications on the relationships between personal beliefs and socio-economic structures are discussed. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.