Z13 - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic StratificationReturn

The mutual fund industry has grown considerably in many countries since the 1990s. Its evolution has been explained primarily in terms of its economic and financial determinants. We draw on a dynamic set of measures for socio-cultural values to explain the differential development of mutual funds across the world. Using a sample of 38 countries for the period 1996-2009, we find a positive relation between the perception of happiness and the size of the mutual fund industry. Freedom of choice, a feature of countries that are dominated by individualistic behaviours and values, has a positive impact on the development of the industry. We also explain the positive relation between individuals' preference for private ownership and the development of mutual funds. Moreover, we prove that the industry is larger in developed countries with greater stock market liquidity, with low ratios of remittance inflows to GDP, and in which the industry is older.

Traditional consensus surveys among economists seem to suffer from two shortcomings. First, they target the consensus issue in a way that tends to underestimate the agreement among economists, and second, they fail to offer information about how much economists' agreed - upon position matches the actual policy, which is what, ultimately, most economists care for most. In this paper, I introduce a redesigned survey that attempts to remedy both shortcomings at once by asking about preferred direction of policy changes in selected areas. Based on data from such survey undertaken among economists in the Czech Republic, I specifically ask about 1) the degree of consensus, and 2) the existence of a gap between such consensus and actual policy. The analysis of the survey data lends support to notions that 1) there is a solid, though not universally convincing consensus (regarding policy changes), 2) there is a gap in most areas of policy between what economists see as desirable and what the policy/makers practice.