Survey Trust, Experimental Trust and ROSCA Membership in Rural Cameroon

Alvin Etang Ndip (), David Fielding and Stephen Knowles ()
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Alvin Etang Ndip: Department of Economics, Yale University

No 713, Working Papers from University of Otago, Department of Economics

Abstract: Broadly speaking, economic experiments and surveys have found trust to be much lower in Africa than in industrialized countries. We analyze new experimental and survey results from rural Cameroon, where the average level of trust appears to be much higher than is typical of Africa. A substantial part of this difference can be explained by the prevalence of Rotating Saving and Credit Associations (ROSCAs) in the area: membership of a common ROSCA is one of the most important factors determining experimental behavior. Correspondingly, responses to the survey questions indicate that villagers have a high degree of trust in people with whom they interact regularly, though not in people in general. There is a significant correlation between the degree of trust exhibited in the game and the degree of trust declared in response to survey questions. However, survey responses do not capture all of the systematic variation in experimental behavior, and understate the importance of ROSCA membership in predicting someoneÕs propensity to trust others.

Keywords: social capital; trust; reciprocity; economic experiments; ROSCAs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 O12 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34 pages
Date: 2007-11, Revised 2007-11
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Working Paper: Survey Trust, Experimental Trust and ROSCA Membership in Rural Cameroon (2008)
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