David Landes

Harvard economic historian whose The Wealth and Poverty of Nations (1998) argued for culture as the primary determinant of economic development — the most culturally conservative major work in development economics.

Culture as the deep cause of development: against structural and geographic explanations (Acemoglu, Diamond), Landes argues that the values, beliefs, and practices of a society — its attitude toward work, time, knowledge, and innovation — determine whether it develops economically. Protestant work ethic, scientific curiosity, and institutional honesty explain Western European success; fatalism, gender exclusion, and hostility to innovation explain developmental failure elsewhere. His position is controversial (critics say it rationalizes inequality through cultural essentialism) but impossible to dismiss — he marshals enormous historical detail.