The study of culture in economics is complex due to two main constraints: the lack of a standard definition of what culture is, and the lack of clarity on how exactly it should be measured. Moreover, the research approach to culture suffers from its own contradictions that can be clarified if we group the approaches according to four main dimensions, which differ according to their interpretation of culture as a subject or an object of research, on the one hand, and which depend on the level of research perspective: macro- or micro- cultural economic approach, on the other.

This IJM Special Issue is dedicated to Culture and Labour. The included papers each focus on a different interpretation of the meaning of the cultural impact on the functioning of the labour force—with regard to both efficiency and productivity. This Special Issue has also introduced a particular structure to its scientific debate. The first part deals with the macroeconomics of cultural impact, and the second part is developed around the topic of the microeconomics of cultural impact on labour.