Trust in Large Organizations

Rafael La Porta, Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes, Andrei Shleifer and Robert W Vishny

Scholarly Articles from Harvard University Department of Economics

Abstract: Several authors suggest that trust is an important determinant of cooperation between strangers in a society, and therefore of performance of social institutions. We argue that trust should be particularly important for the performance of large organizations. In a cross-section of countries, evidence on government performance, participation in civic and professional societies, importance of large firms, and the performance of social institution more generally supports this hypothesis. Moreover, trust is lower in countries with dominant hierarchical religions, which may have deterred "horizontal networks of cooperation" between people. In sum, theories of trust hold up remarkable well on a cross-section of countries.

Date: 1997
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1002)

Published in American Economic Review

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Related works:
Journal Article: Trust in Large Organizations (1997)
Working Paper: Trust in Large Organizations (1996)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hrv:faseco:30726298

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