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Construction, dimension reduction and uncertainty analysis of an index of trust in public institutions

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  • Marco Marozzi

Abstract

Research on social capital in general and trust in particular is markedly increased. The worldwide problem of low and decreasing levels of trust in many public institutions is greatly debated. This is a very important problem because the trust citizens have in public institutions may foster democratic practices and facilitate better provision of public services. Moreover, trust is a central element of social order and survival of any democratic regime: it affects institutional performance, wellbeing, economic development and crime reduction. Public institutions should pay very much attention to citizens’ trust in them and in particular when introducing reforms aiming at improving their functioning. Trust is difficult to be assessed due to its quite elusive meaning. An index of general trust in public institutions is proposed within the framework of composite indicators. It is shown how to reduce the dimension of the index by finding out the most and least important aspects of it. Uncertainty analysis is used to test whether dimension reduction results are robust or not with respect to plausible changes in variable values and variable transformations. An application to data from the European Social Survey is discussed. The results show the very important role of the trust in politicians and political parties in explaining the level of general trust in public institutions. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Marco Marozzi, 2014. "Construction, dimension reduction and uncertainty analysis of an index of trust in public institutions," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 939-953, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:qualqt:v:48:y:2014:i:2:p:939-953
    DOI: 10.1007/s11135-012-9815-z
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Betsey Stevenson & Justin Wolfers, 2011. "Trust in Public Institutions over the Business Cycle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(3), pages 281-287, May.
    2. M. Saisana & A. Saltelli & S. Tarantola, 2005. "Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis techniques as tools for the quality assessment of composite indicators," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 168(2), pages 307-323, March.
    3. Marco Marozzi, 2009. "A composite indicator dimension reduction procedure with application to university student satisfaction," Statistica Neerlandica, Netherlands Society for Statistics and Operations Research, vol. 63(3), pages 258-268, August.
    4. Soo Tan & Siok Tambyah, 2011. "Generalized Trust and Trust in Institutions in Confucian Asia," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 103(3), pages 357-377, September.
    5. Peter M. Fayers & David J. Hand, 2002. "Causal variables, indicator variables and measurement scales: an example from quality of life," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 165(2), pages 233-253, June.
    6. Marco Marozzi, 2012. "Tertiary student satisfaction with socialization: A statistical assessment," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 46(4), pages 1271-1278, June.
    7. Marco Corazza & Florence Legros & Cira Perna & Marilena Sibillo, 2017. "Mathematical and Statistical Methods for Actuarial Sciences and Finance," Post-Print hal-01776135, HAL.
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    Cited by:

    1. Robinson, Stephen Cory, 2020. "Trust, transparency, and openness: How inclusion of cultural values shapes Nordic national public policy strategies for artificial intelligence (AI)," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    2. Danish Farooq & Sarbast Moslem & Szabolcs Duleba, 2019. "Evaluation of Driver Behavior Criteria for Evolution of Sustainable Traffic Safety," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-15, June.
    3. Marcos Alvarez Diaz & Gonzalo Caballero Miguez & Baltasar Manzano Gonz lez & Jos M. Mart n Moreno, 2015. "Assessment of Political Situation over the Business Cycle in Spain: A Time Series Analysis," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 213(2), pages 41-62, June.
    4. Marco Marozzi & Mario Bolzan, 2018. "An Index of Household Accessibility to Basic Services: A Study of Italian Regions," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 136(3), pages 1237-1250, April.
    5. Marco Marozzi, 2015. "Measuring Trust in European Public Institutions," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 123(3), pages 879-895, September.
    6. Chao Shi & Kenneth C. Land, 2021. "The Data Envelopment Analysis and Equal Weights/Minimax Methods of Composite Social Indicator Construction: a Methodological Study of Data Sensitivity and Robustness," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 16(4), pages 1689-1716, August.
    7. Michela Gnaldi & M. Giovanna Ranalli, 2016. "Measuring University Performance by Means of Composite Indicators: A Robustness Analysis of the Composite Measure Used for the Benchmark of Italian Universities," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 129(2), pages 659-675, November.
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