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Regional Trust as a Signal of Local Trustworthiness: Evidence from Migrants

Author

Listed:
  • Gianluca Grimalda

    (Passau University)

  • Diego Marino-Fages

    (University of Durham)

Abstract

Beliefs about trustworthiness shape exchange, cooperation, and economic development. Kim, Putterman, and Zhang (2022) show experimentally that people draw similar inferences from observed trust and trustworthiness. We test whether these signals are similarly predictive outside the laboratory using TrustLab data on 518 first-generation migrants from 83 origin countries living in 128 regions across six OECD destination countries. A one-standard-deviation increase in native regional trust is associated with a 0.19-standard-deviation increase in migrants’ expected trustworthiness, conditional on regional trustworthiness, whose coefficient is near zero. The results are consistent with migrants using local trusting behavior as a signal of trustworthiness.

Suggested Citation

  • Gianluca Grimalda & Diego Marino-Fages, 2026. "Regional Trust as a Signal of Local Trustworthiness: Evidence from Migrants," Department of Economics Working Papers 2026_14, Durham University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:dur:durham:2026_14
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    JEL classification:

    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification
    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments

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