Trusting Neighbours or Strangers in a Racially Divided Society: Insights from Survey Data in South Africa

Dorrit Posel and Timothy Hinks

Journal of African Economies, 2013, vol. 22, issue 1, 136-162

Abstract: In this paper, we investigate reported measures of trust in South Africa, collected in the 2008 National Income Dynamics Study. In particular, we compare responses to two questions asked of all adult respondents about the likelihood that a lost wallet or purse will be returned either by ‘someone who lives close by’ or by a ‘complete stranger’. Although reported levels of trust are very low, we find that South African adults are significantly more likely to report trusting neighbours than strangers. We use ordered probit regressions to estimate the correlates of these two measures of trust and in particular, to probe race differences in trust. Consistent with studies from the USA and from South Africa, we find considerable racial variation in reported trust. In comparison with whites, other population groups in South Africa are significantly less likely to report trusting people who live close by. However, these race differences are dramatically reduced once differences in personal and neighbourhood income are controlled for. In contrast, race differences in trust of strangers are smaller, and they are even reversed among black South Africans, who appear more trusting than other population groups of strangers. Copyright 2013 , Oxford University Press.

Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/jae/ejs018 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Trusting neighbours or strangers in a racially divided society: Insights from survey data in South Africa (2011)
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:oup:jafrec:v:22:y:2013:i:1:p:136-162

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of African Economies is currently edited by Francis Teal

More articles in Journal of African Economies from Centre for the Study of African Economies Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().