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Trust and State Effectiveness: The Political Economy of Compliance

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  • Timothy Besley
  • Sacha Dray

Abstract

This paper explores the link between trust in government, policymaking and compliance. It focuses on a specific channel whereby citizens who are convinced of the merits of a policy are more motivated to comply with it. This, in turn, reduces the government’s cost of implementing this policy and may also increase the set of feasible interventions. As a result, state effectiveness is greater when citizens trust their government. The paper discusses alternative approaches to modelling the origins of trust, especially the link to the design of political institutions. We then provide empirical evidence consistent with the model’s findings that compliance is increasing in government trust using the Integrated Values Survey and voluntary compliance during COVID-19 in the United Kingdom.

Suggested Citation

  • Timothy Besley & Sacha Dray, 2024. "Trust and State Effectiveness: The Political Economy of Compliance," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 134(662), pages 2225-2251.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:econjl:v:134:y:2024:i:662:p:2225-2251.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ej/ueae030
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    Cited by:

    1. Glynia, Nektaria & Manalis, Georgios & Xefteris, Dimitrios, 2025. "Trust dynamics in electoral competition," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    2. Ajzenman, Nicolás & Ardanaz, Martín & Cruces, Guillermo & Feierherd, Germán & Lunghi, Ignacio, 2024. "Unraveling the Paradox of Anticorruption Messaging: Experimental Evidence from a Tax Administration Reform," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 13555, Inter-American Development Bank.
    3. Goodhart, C. A. E. & Hoang Vu, Ly, 2025. "When do people trust their government?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 127880, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Belmonte, Alessandro & Bove, Vincenzo & Di Salvatore, Jessica, 2025. "Bad signals? Foreign aid and tax morale across Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    5. Alessandro Belmonte & Desiree Teobaldelli & Davide Ticchi, 2024. "Expected foreign military intervention and demand for state-building: evidence from Mali," Working Papers 493, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    6. Frost, Margaret H. & Kim, SangEun & Scartascini, Carlos & Zamora, Paula & Zechmeister, Elizabeth J., 2025. "Disaster and political trust: Evidence from the 2017 Mexico city earthquake," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    7. Roost, Stefanie Cipriano, 2025. "Social acceptance of social transfer policies: The role of climate vulnerabilities and policy design," IDOS Discussion Papers 36/2025, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    8. Sisak, Dana & Swank, Otto, 2025. "Polarization, Trust and Policy Capacity - Strategic Bureaucrat Appointments under Electoral Incentives," VfS Annual Conference 2025 (Cologne): Revival of Industrial Policy 325374, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    9. Kevin Grieco & Abou Bakarr Kamara & Niccolo F. Meriggi & Julian Michel & Prichard Wilson, 2025. "Participation, legitimacy and fiscal capacity in weak states: Evidence from participatory budgeting," CSAE Working Paper Series 2025-05, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    10. Xiangzhe Xu & Ran Wu, 2025. "When Clear Skies Cloud Trust: Environmental Cues and the Paradox of Confidence in Government," Papers 2509.23554, arXiv.org.
    11. Tim Friehe & Christian Pfeifer, 2024. "Predicting satisfaction with democracy in Germany using local economic conditions, social capital, and individual characteristics," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 335-377, September.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

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