In the face of neo genetic determinist tendencies it's important to revisit an extensive study from 1984 in which Dr. Thomas Sowell showed culture matters in determining the progress of racial groups
Dr. Thomas Sowell illustrates how and why culture matters in Tony Brown's Journal (1984).
How much of a racial group's economic fate is determined by the surrounding society it lives in, and how much by internal patterns that follow that same group around the world? Using an international framework to analyze a group of differences, Sowell has pioneered a new approach for pursuing this important study, utilizing historical experience and empirical data. The results are fascinating and sometimes surprising. For instance, he finds that the social and economic patterns among Italians in Australia and Argentina are similar in many respects to those of Italians in Italy or the United States. And, though blacks have not faced the same massive and rigid oppression in Brazil as in the United States, economic differences between blacks and whites are significantly greater in Brazil.
By the same author, "Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy"