Trust and trustworthiness across poverty categories: experimental evidence from rural Rwanda

In recent years, studies on trust and trustworthiness in developing countries have attracted little attention. The paper examines the degree of trustworthiness in a field experiment with a random sample of heads of households from three poverty categories. The sample is drawn from the population in one rural district at a village level. The paper estimates a simultaneous equation model (SEM) composed of equations for trustworthiness and trust using a Conditional Mixed Process. I find significance that trust measured by the proportions sent predict trustworthiness in general and between poverty categories in the trust experiment. The results from the experiment indicate that trustworthiness decreases as the size of the household increases. The findings of the paper indicate trustworthiness in terms of magnitude is much more observed with individuals in the lower poverty categories one and two than in category three an indication that trustworthiness reduces as the social status improves.