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Building trust in the state with information: Evidence from urban Punjab

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  • Khan, Adnan
  • Nasim, Sanval
  • Shaukat, Mahvish
  • Stegmann, Andreas

Abstract

Can communication designed to increase support for government policy and shift perceptions of state capacity redress deep-rooted mistrust in state institutions? This paper finds providing information on past state effectiveness, highlighting citizens’ cooperation in enabling past effectiveness or appealing to religious authorities’ support for government policy have limited impact on support for policy, perceptions of state capacity and trust in the state in Pakistan. This holds true on average and across important dimensions of heterogeneity after comparing treatment effects to those induced by an experimenter demand treatment. This paper highlights the limits of using information to build trust in state institutions, and the importance of measuring experimenter demand.

Suggested Citation

  • Khan, Adnan & Nasim, Sanval & Shaukat, Mahvish & Stegmann, Andreas, 2021. "Building trust in the state with information: Evidence from urban Punjab," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 202(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:202:y:2021:i:c:s0047272721001304
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2021.104494
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    Cited by:

    1. Francesco Capozza & Ingar Haaland & Christopher Roth & Johannes Wohlfart, 2021. "Studying Information Acquisition in the Field: A Practical Guide and Review," CEBI working paper series 21-15, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. The Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI).
    2. Francesco Capozza & Ingar Haaland & Christopher Roth & Johannes Wohlfart, 2022. "Recent Advances in Studies of News Consumption," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 204, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    3. Monica Martinez-Bravo & Carlos Sanz, 2022. "The Management of the Pandemic and its Effects on Trust and Accountability," Working Papers wp2022_2207, CEMFI.
    4. Michelle Acampora & Francesco Capozza & Vahid Moghani, 2022. "Mental Health Literacy, Beliefs and Demand for Mental Health Support among University Students," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 22-079/I, Tinbergen Institute.
    5. Michal Šoltés, 2023. "Consequences of inconvenient information: Evidence from sentencing disparities," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 90(360), pages 1307-1334, October.
    6. Khan, Muhammad Salar & Jamil, Kamil & Malik, Ammar A., 2022. "Delivering Urban Mass Transit—The Case of Lahore, Pakistan," SocArXiv 2zj8m, Center for Open Science.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Trust; State capacity; Information; COVID-19; Experimenter demand;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D02 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Institutions: Design, Formation, Operations, and Impact
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State

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