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Inequality and Trust: Some Inequalities are More Harmful than Others

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Author Info

  • Gustavsson, Magnus

    () (Department of Economics)

  • Jordahl, Henrik

    (Department of Economics)

Abstract

We present new evidence on the influence of income inequality on generalized trust. Using individual panel data from Swedish counties together with an instrumental variable strategy we find that differences in disposable income, and especially differences among people in the bottom half of the income distribution, are associated with lower trust. The relationship between income inequality and trust is particularly strong for people with a strong aversion against income differentials. We also find that the proportion of people born in a foreign country is negatively associated with trust.

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File URL: http://www.nek.uu.se/pdf/wp2006_3.pdf
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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Uppsala University, Department of Economics in its series Working Paper Series with number 2006:3.

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Length: 29 pages
Date of creation: 17 Jan 2006
Date of revision:
Publication status: Published in Journal of Public Economics, 2008, pages 348-365.
Handle: RePEc:hhs:uunewp:2006_003

Contact details of provider:
Postal: Department of Economics, Uppsala University, P. O. Box 513, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden
Phone: + 46 18 471 25 00
Fax: + 46 18 471 14 78
Email:
Web page: http://www.nek.uu.se/
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Related research

Keywords: trust; social capital; inequality;

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References

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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Per Engstrom & Bertil Holmlund, 2009. "Tax evasion and self-employment in a high-tax country: evidence from Sweden," Applied Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 41(19), pages 2419-2430.
  2. D'Angelo, Emanuela & Lilla, Marco, 2007. "Is there more than one linkage between Social Network and Inequality?," IRISS Working Paper Series 2007-12, IRISS at CEPS/INSTEAD.
  3. Sander Steijn & Bram Lancee, 2011. "GINI DP 20: Does Income Inequality Negatively Affect General Trust? Examining three potential problems with the inequality-trust hypothesis," GINI Discussion Papers 20, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.
  4. Hallberg, Daniel, 2006. "Cross-national differences in income poverty among Europe´s 50+," Working Paper Series 2006:14, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
  5. Ågren, Martin, 2006. "Prospect Theory and Higher Moments," Working Paper Series 2006:24, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
  6. repec:aia:ginidp:dp20 is not listed on IDEAS

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