Human behaviour and economic growth: a psychocultural perspective on local and regional development

Huggins, R, Thompson, P ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1961-7441 and Obschonka, M, 2018. Human behaviour and economic growth: a psychocultural perspective on local and regional development. Environment and Planning A, 50 (6), pp. 1269-1289. ISSN 0308-518X

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Abstract

A renewed emphasis on behavioural traits has emerged as a means of explaining regional and local differences in economic performance and development. Given this, the aim of this study is to identify distinct local psychocultural behavioural profiles and to examine the extent to which these are associated with economic growth. Combining theories of community culture and personality psychology into a holistic spatially-oriented perspective, the paper argues that the types of human behaviour found across local places emerges from the co-evolution of cultural and personality factors. An empirical analysis of localities in Great Britain identifies and explores three underlying psychocultural profiles: Diverse Extraversion; Inclusive Amenability and Individual Commitment. It is found that inclusive amenable and individually committed psychocultural behaviour generally appear to hold back local economic growth, with the exception of recessionary periods. The reverse relationship is somewhat the case for diverse extravert behaviour. It is concluded that a better understanding of the holistic relationship and co-evolution of the cultural and psychological behavioural make-up of localities and regions has the potential to provide new insights into expected development outcomes as well as the forms of policy intervention that are required within regions and localities, each of which has its own individual psychocultural character.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Environment and Planning A
Creators:	Huggins, R., Thompson, P. and Obschonka, M.
Publisher:	Sage
Date:	1 September 2018
Volume:	50
Number:	6
ISSN:	0308-518X
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1177/0308518X18778035 DOI 671273 Other
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Business School
Record created by:	Linda Sullivan
Date Added:	01 Jun 2018 08:04
Last Modified:	30 Oct 2020 09:38
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/33771

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