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The Determinants of Trust

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Alberto Alesina
Eliana La Ferrara

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Abstract

Both individual experiences and community characteristics influence how much people trust each other. Using data drawn from US localities we find that the strongest factors that reduce trust are: i) a recent history of traumatic experiences, even though the passage of time reduces this effect fairly rapidly; ii) belonging to a group that historically felt discriminated against, such as minorities (black in particular) and, to a lesser extent, women; iii) being economically unsuccessful in terms of income and education; iv) living in a racially mixed community and/or in one with a high degree of income disparity. Religious beliefs and ethnic origins do not significantly affect trust. The latter result may be an indication that the American melting pot at least up to a point works, in terms of homogenizing attitudes of different cultures, even though racial cleavages leading to low trust are still quite high.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 7621.

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Date of creation: Mar 2000
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:7621

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  3. Dean S. Karlan, 2005. "Social Connections and Group Banking," Working Papers 913, Economic Growth Center, Yale University. [Downloadable!]
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  4. Anneli Kaasa & Eve Parts, 2007. "Individual-Level Determinants Of Social Capital In Europe: Differences Between Country Groups," University of Tartu - Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Working Paper Series 56, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Tartu (Estonia). [Downloadable!]
  5. Harvey James, 2002. "On the Reliability of Trusting," Microeconomics 0202002, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  6. Daniel Lederman, 2005. "Income Wealth, and Socialization in Argentina," Cuadernos de Economía (Latin American Journal of Economics), Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile., vol. 42(125), pages 3-30. [Downloadable!]
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  8. Raiser, M. & Di Tommaso, M.L. & Weeks, M., 2000. "The Measurement and Determination of Institutional Change: Evidence from Transition Economics," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0029, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge. [Downloadable!]
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  10. Haddad, Lawrence James & Maluccio, John A., 2002. "Trust, membership in groups, and household welfare," FCND discussion papers 135, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). [Downloadable!]
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  11. Lederman, Daniel, 2002. "Income, wealth, and socialization in Argentina : provocative responses from individuals," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2821, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  12. Fajnzylber, Pablo & Maloney, William F. & Rojas, Gabriel V. Montes, 2006. "Releasing constraints to growth or pushing on a string ? the impact of credit, training, business associations, and taxes on the performance of Mexican micro-firms," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3807, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  13. Christian, Bjørnskov, 2003. "Corruption and Social Capital," Working Papers 03-13, University of Aarhus, Aarhus School of Business, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  14. Daouda Sembene, 2007. "Give Trust a Chance--A Model of Trust in the Context of an IMF-Supported Program," IMF Working Papers 07/42, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
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