Trust in Government and Its Determinants: An Empirical Study of Public Acceptability for Carbon Tax in Malaysia

Izlawanie Muhammad (), Norfakhirah Nazihah Mohd Hasnu, Mohd Adha Ibrahim, Suhaila Abdul Hamid and Mustafa Mohd Hanefah
Additional contact information
Izlawanie Muhammad: Faculty of Economics and Muamalat, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, Bandar Baru Nilai 71800, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia
Norfakhirah Nazihah Mohd Hasnu: Faculty of Economics and Muamalat, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, Bandar Baru Nilai 71800, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia
Mohd Adha Ibrahim: Faculty of Economics and Muamalat, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, Bandar Baru Nilai 71800, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia
Suhaila Abdul Hamid: Faculty of Economics and Muamalat, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, Bandar Baru Nilai 71800, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia
Mustafa Mohd Hanefah: Faculty of Economics and Muamalat, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, Bandar Baru Nilai 71800, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 23, 1-12

Abstract: Trust in government is a significant factor influencing the public acceptability of environmental tax. Without trust, implementing and sustaining a new tax policy is challenging due to public resistance. However, gaining trust from the public is even more challenging in developing countries where corruption is a common issue. Despite the risk of policy rejection, many developing countries, including Malaysia, are adopting the carbon tax as a policy to reduce carbon emissions. This has raised the question of the impact of trust in the government on public acceptability for carbon tax implementation in Malaysia. Another critical concern is identifying the predictors of trust in government, to which researchers have given less attention. Three main features of good governance—accountability, integrity, and competence—were examined as the predictors of trust in government. A nationwide survey in Malaysia was conducted using an online questionnaire, and 566 respondents completed the survey. The data were analysed using the Structural Equation Model (SEM) via Amos. The results show that trust in the government is influenced by the government’s accountability, integrity, and competence. In contrast with many past studies, trust in the government does not influence Malaysian acceptance behaviour. Instead, only the government’s accountability influences the acceptance of carbon tax implementation among the public. The public is concerned about the government’s spending; hence, the government must be transparent in its spending and redistributing the tax revenue to the public must be the top priority to gain public trust in implementing a carbon tax policy.

Keywords: trust in government; trust; carbon tax; Malaysia; public acceptability; carbon pricing; accountability; integrity; competence; environmental tax (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/23/15684/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/23/15684/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:23:p:15684-:d:983848

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().