ABSTRACT We highlight the role of economic materialism as a cultural phenomenon of significance in relation to economic transformation and development. By inducing material aspirations, an endogenous cultural change toward more widespread adherence to materialistic values is both a cause and an effect of productivity growth. This cultural–economic complementarity is a powerful mechanism of endogenous productivity growth; it also determines the prevalence of different cultural values vis‐à‐vis the prominence of material objectives. From a historical perspective, the model draws attention to a novel mechanism through which cultural change may have contributed to the take‐off toward sustained economic growth.