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The Fragility and Robustness of Trust

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Author Info
Jim Engle-Warnick () (Nuffield College, Oxford)
Robert L. Slonim () (Dept of Economics, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University)

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Abstract

Although it is well known that trust is an important component of the fulfilment of incomplete contracts, less is known regarding how robust it is to past experiences. We present an experiment in which trust is required for transactions to occur, and nature provides a series of shocks along the path of play. Although the shocks have a short-term impact, we find that trust is surprisingly robust in the long-term. We argue that trust, through fragile in one way, is in another way more robust and stable over time than previously known. The results shed light on the resilence of economic institutions with incomplete contracts.

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File URL: http://www.nuff.ox.ac.uk/Economics/papers/2001/w15/fragnuf.pdf
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Economics Group, Nuffield College, University of Oxford in its series Economics Papers with number 2001-W15.

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Length: 31 pages
Date of creation: 22 Aug 2001
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:nuf:econwp:0115

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Web page: http://www.nuff.ox.ac.uk/economics/

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Related research
Keywords: Trust Repeated Games Experimental Economics

Find related papers by JEL classification:
C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior

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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)
  1. Ryan Murphy & Amnon Rapoport & James Parco, 2006. "The breakdown of cooperation in iterative real-time trust dilemmas," Experimental Economics, Springer, vol. 9(2), pages 147-166, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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