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Individual trust: does quality of public services matter?

Author

Listed:
  • Silvia Camussi

    (Bank of Italy)

  • Anna Laura Mancini

    (Bank of Italy)

Abstract

This paper contributes to the literature on the determinants of social capital by investigating how the quality of local services influences individual’s generalized trust and trust in local government. Using data from the Italian National Statistic Office survey “Aspetti della vita quotidiana”, after building a measure for local services’ quality, we study its effect on individual’s social capital using linear regressions techniques. Our results suggest that good local public services affect positively individual’s social capital, the effect being stronger for trust in local institutions. To deal with possible endogeneity issues, the robustness of our results is tested using two-step GMM estimation, while the procedure proposed by Altonji et al. (2005) is used to study the sensitivity to omitted variables. Finally, the paper extends the analysis to further social capital measures (family ties, network social capital and trust in central government) and to alternative quality measures. We also test the existence of age related differences in the influence of public services’ quality on individual trust measures.

Suggested Citation

  • Silvia Camussi & Anna Laura Mancini, 2016. "Individual trust: does quality of public services matter?," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1069, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    • Handle: RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_1069_16
    as

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    File URL: http://www.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/temi-discussione/2016/2016-1069/en_tema_1069.pdf
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    Cited by:

    1. Massimo Baldini & Vito Peragine & Luca Silvestri, 2017. "Quality of government and subjective poverty in Europe," Department of Economics 0107, University of Modena and Reggio E., Faculty of Economics "Marco Biagi".
    2. Massimo Baldini & Vito Peragine & Luca Silvestri, 2018. "Quality of Government and Subjective Poverty in Europe," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo, vol. 64(3), pages 371-395.
    3. Mocetti, Sauro & Orlando, Tommaso, 2019. "Corruption, workforce selection and mismatch in the public sector," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    trust; quality of public services; IV estimation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C26 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Instrumental Variables (IV) Estimation
    • Z10 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - General
    • H70 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - General

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