Whereas most of his studies concentrated on economic behavior in the Federal Republic of Germany, Schmölders reached similar conclusions concerning theories of economic development. By the late 1950s, experiences in development policy had clearly established that the injection of capital and technology was not sufficient to instill economic growth. Publicly, Schmölders rejected attempts to explain differences in economic development by theories of race and climate, and acknowledged that talents were equally distributed across different peoples. Yet he claimed that, in analogy to the personal character, there was also a “people’s character” (Volkscharakter), consisting of attitudes, norms, customs, and values that could be ascertained by means of socioeconomic behavioral research. This people’s character could explain the differences in economic development since it determined the “willingness of a majority to leave their accustomed ways of life for more lucrative ones,” to work more and relocate, as well as the ability to appropriate new technologies.

Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, loc. 336