Measuring Trust in Institutions

Fredrik Carlsson, Eyoual Demeke (), Peter Martinsson and Tewodros Tesemma ()
Additional contact information
Eyoual Demeke: Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University, Postal: P.O. Box 640, SE 40530 GÖTEBORG, Sweden, https://www.economics.gu.se
Tewodros Tesemma: Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University, Postal: P.O. Box 640, SE 40530 GÖTEBORG, Sweden, https://www.economics.gu.se

No 730, Working Papers in Economics from University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics

Abstract: In empirical studies, survey questions are typically used to measure trust; trust games are also used to measure interpersonal trust. In this paper, we measure trust in different institutions by using both trust games and survey questions. We find that generalized trust is only weakly correlated with trust in specific institutions, when elicited both by using a trust game and by using survey questions. However, the correlation between trust in a specific institution elicited through a trust game and stated trust for the same institution is stronger and statistically significant. Thus, our findings suggest that generalized trust is not an appropriate measure of institutional trust and that more specific institutional trust measures should be used.

Keywords: experiment; institutional trust; generalized trust (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C90 D01 D02 O43 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2018-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp, nep-gth, nep-hpe and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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http://hdl.handle.net/2077/56336 Full text (text/html)

Related works:
Journal Article: Measuring trust in institutions (2024)
Working Paper: Measuring Trust in Institutions (2018)
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