Can trust effects on development be generalized? A response by quantile

Jesús Peiró-Palomino () and Emili Tortosa-Ausina

European Journal of Political Economy, 2013, vol. 32, issue C, 377-390

Abstract: While the beneficial effects of social trust on economic performance have been largely recognized, we analyze whether these effects can be generalized for economies at different stages of economic development. Contrary to previous studies on this issue based on average effects (mostly considering ordinary least squares estimations), we follow a quantile regression approach that enables us to capture heterogeneous effects of trust for different development levels. By considering data for 80 countries, and using trust indicators from five different waves of the World Values Survey (WVS), our results by quantile indicate that trust is not relevant for the poorest economies, showing the existence of a social poverty trap. In addition, results suggest that the impact of trust on income decreases as an economy becomes richer. This would suggest not only that trust benefits cannot be generalized for all countries, as some previous studies have proposed, but also that the extent of its implications are heavily dependent on the level of development.

Keywords: GDP per capita; Quantile regression; Trust (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)

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Working Paper: Can Trust Effects on Development be Generalized? A Response by Quantile (2013)
Working Paper: Can trust effects on development be generalized? A response by quantile (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:poleco:v:32:y:2013:i:c:p:377-390

DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2013.09.008

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