IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecoind/v30y2009i2p294-320.html

Making Capitalism Work: Fair Institutions and Trust

Author

Listed:
  • Sven Oskarsson

    (Department of Government, Uppsala University, Sweden)

  • PerOla Öberg

    (Department of Government, Uppsala University, Sweden)

  • Torsten Svensson

    (Department of Government, Uppsala University, Sweden)

Abstract

This study tests three hypotheses on data from a survey on employment relations conducted in Sweden in 2006. The first hypothesis implies that the extent to which an employee perceives formal institutions as fair and duly enforced increases the probability that he/she will behave cooperatively. The second hypothesis states that an employee's trust in the opposite party should have equivalent effects. The last hypothesis holds that an employee's perception of formal institutions as fair and duly enforced increases his/her trust in the opposite party. All three hypotheses are supported by the data. The interpretation is that there is indeed an effect on cooperative behavior and willingness to enter into flexible contracts from perceptions of fair and enforced institutions, but it is indirect and mediated by attitudes of trust.

Suggested Citation

  • Sven Oskarsson & PerOla Öberg & Torsten Svensson, 2009. "Making Capitalism Work: Fair Institutions and Trust," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 30(2), pages 294-320, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:30:y:2009:i:2:p:294-320
    DOI: 10.1177/0143831X09104044
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0143831X09104044
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0143831X09104044?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert E. Hall & Charles I. Jones, 1999. "Why do Some Countries Produce So Much More Output Per Worker than Others?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(1), pages 83-116.
    2. Lorenz, Edward, 1999. "Trust, Contract and Economic Cooperation," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 23(3), pages 301-315, May.
    3. Torsten Persson & Guido Tabellini, 2009. "Democratic Capital: The Nexus of Political and Economic Change," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(2), pages 88-126, July.
    4. Stephen Knack & Philip Keefer, 1997. "Does Social Capital Have an Economic Payoff? A Cross-Country Investigation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(4), pages 1251-1288.
    5. Bockstette, Valerie & Chanda, Areendam & Putterman, Louis, 2002. "States and Markets: The Advantage of an Early Start," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 7(4), pages 347-369, December.
    6. Bertil Holmlund & Donald Storrie, 2002. "Temporary Work In Turbulent Times: The Swedish Experience," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(480), pages 245-269, June.
    7. Bo Rothstein, 2001. "The Universal Welfare State As A Social Dilemma," Rationality and Society, , vol. 13(2), pages 213-233, May.
    8. Aron, Janine, 2000. "Growth and Institutions: A Review of the Evidence," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 15(1), pages 99-135, February.
    9. Klas Levinson, 2000. "Codetermination in Sweden: Myth and Reality," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 21(4), pages 457-473, November.
    10. Shelanski, Howard A & Klein, Peter G, 1995. "Empirical Research in Transaction Cost Economics: A Review and Assessment," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 11(2), pages 335-361, October.
    11. Axel Dreher & Thomas Herzfeld, 2005. "The Economic Costs of Corruption: A Survey and New Evidence," Public Economics 0506001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Gaute Torsvik, 2000. "Social Capital And Economic Development," Rationality and Society, , vol. 12(4), pages 451-476, November.
    13. W. J. Henisz, 2000. "The Institutional Environment for Economic Growth," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(1), pages 1-31, March.
    14. Kurt T. Dirks & Donald L. Ferrin, 2001. "The Role of Trust in Organizational Settings," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(4), pages 450-467, August.
    15. Oliver E. Williamson, 2000. "The New Institutional Economics: Taking Stock, Looking Ahead," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(3), pages 595-613, September.
    16. Elinor Ostrom, 2000. "Collective Action and the Evolution of Social Norms," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 137-158, Summer.
    17. Robert J. David & Shin‐Kap Han, 2004. "A systematic assessment of the empirical support for transaction cost economics," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 39-58, January.
    18. Sjoerd Beugelsdijk & Henri L.F. de Groot & Anton B.T.M. van Schaik, 2004. "Trust and economic growth: a robustness analysis," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 56(1), pages 118-134, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Buchen, Clemens, 2010. "Emerging economic systems in Central and Eastern Europe – a qualitative and quantitative assessment," EconStor Theses, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 37141.
    2. Christian Bjørnskov & Pierre-Guillaume Méon, 2013. "Is trust the missing root of institutions, education, and development?," Post-Print CEB, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles, vol. 157(3-4), pages 641-669, December.
    3. Foa, R. & Tanner, J.C., 2012. "Methodology of the Indices of Social Development," ISD Working Paper Series 2012-04, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    4. Serkan Degirmenci, 2011. "Do Institutions Matter for Regional Economic Growth and Development? The Case of Turkey," ERSA conference papers ersa11p1180, European Regional Science Association.
    5. Christian Bjørnskov & Pierre-Guillaume Méon, 2012. "Trust as the missing root of institutions, education, and development," Working Papers CEB 12-031, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    6. Bjørnskov, Christian & Méon, Pierre-Guillaume, 2015. "The Productivity of Trust," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 317-331.
    7. Francesco Pasimeni & Paolo Pasimeni, 2016. "An Institutional Analysis of the Europe 2020 Strategy," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 127(3), pages 1021-1038, July.
    8. Ugur, Mehmet, 2010. "Institutions and economic performance: a review of the theory and evidence," MPRA Paper 25909, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Oct 2010.
    9. Serkan Degirmenci, 2011. "Do Institutions Matter for Regional Economic Growth and Development? The Case of Turkey," ERSA conference papers ersa11p1374, European Regional Science Association.
    10. Yu, Shu & Beugelsdijk, Sjoerd & de Haan, Jakob, 2015. "Trade, trust and the rule of law," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 102-115.
    11. Mirakhor, Abbas, 2010. "Whither Islamic Finance? Risk Sharing in An Age of Crises," MPRA Paper 56341, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. David Fielding & Sebastian Torres, 2006. "A simultaneous equation model of economic development and income inequality," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 4(3), pages 279-301, December.
    13. Klasing, Mariko J., 2013. "Cultural dimensions, collective values and their importance for institutions," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 447-467.
    14. Ghulam, Yaseen, 2021. "Institutions and firms’ technological changes and productivity growth," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    15. Elert, Niklas & Henrekson, Magnus & Stenkula, Mikael, 2017. "Institutional Reform for Innovation and Entrepreneurship: An Agenda for Europe," Working Paper Series 1150, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, revised 16 Feb 2017.
    16. Christensen, Jonas Gade, 2011. "Democracy and Expropriations," Working Papers in Economics 06/11, University of Bergen, Department of Economics.
    17. Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés & Ketterer, Tobias, 2016. "Institutions vs. ‘First-Nature’ Geography – What Drives Economic Growth in Europe’s Regions?," CEPR Discussion Papers 11322, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    18. Eslamloueyan, Karim & Jafari, Mahboubeh, 2019. "Do better institutions offset the adverse effect of a financial crisis on investment? Evidence from East Asia," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 154-172.
    19. repec:jpe:journl:1368 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Shamugia, Egnate, 2025. "Rule of law and economic performance: A meta-regression analysis," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    21. Forte, Anabel & Peiró-Palomino, Jesús & Tortosa-Ausina, Emili, 2015. "Does social capital matter for European regional growth?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 47-64.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:30:y:2009:i:2:p:294-320. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ekhist.uu.se/english.htm .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.