IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/127880.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

When do people trust their government?

Author

Listed:
  • Goodhart, C. A. E.
  • Hoang Vu, Ly

Abstract

There has been widespread concern about the decrease in trust in government and the need to regain it. Policymakers and researchers have been working on reasons for this, and how to reverse it. In this study, we rely on a recent sample prepared by the World Values Survey, wave 7. It includes over 81,000 observations across 52 countries for the years 2017 - 22. Our study offers three main findings. The first is that economic growth plays a crucial role in determining trust in government, and its importance appears consistent across all regions. The second is the presence of a "Trust Paradox," whereby trust in government tends to be lower in fully democratic countries compared to single-party states, with the exception of Latin America. The third is that migration generally is positively related to trust in government. We explain this by noting that, historically, this has often been the case; however, when inward migration exceeds a certain threshold, the effect on trust often shifts.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:127880
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/127880/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ehrmann, Michael & Wabitsch, Alena, 2022. "Central bank communication with non-experts – A road to nowhere?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 69-85.
    2. Jonathan Muringani & Rune Dahl Fitjar & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2024. "Political trust and economic development in European regions," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 73(4), pages 2059-2089, December.
    3. Pei Kuang & Michael Weber & Shihan Xie, 2025. "Central Bank Communication with the Polarized Public," NBER Working Papers 33524, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Sergei Guriev & Nikita Melnikov & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, 2021. "3G Internet and Confidence in Government," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 136(4), pages 2533-2613.
    5. Guillaume Blanc & Romain Wacziarg, 2025. "Malthusian Migrations," NBER Working Papers 33542, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Miller, Arthur H. & Goldenberg, Edie N. & Erbring, Lutz, 1979. "Type-Set Politics: Impact of Newspapers on Public Confidence," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 73(1), pages 67-84, March.
    7. Chase Foster & Jeffry Frieden, 2017. "Crisis of trust: Socio-economic determinants of Europeans’ confidence in government," European Union Politics, , vol. 18(4), pages 511-535, December.
    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. Zhorayev, Olzhas, 2020. "Determinants of Trust in Police: A Cross-National Analysis," MPRA Paper 109068, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Jonne Lehtimäki & Marianne Palmu, 2022. "Who Should You Listen to in a Crisis? Differences in Communication of Central Bank Policymakers," Journal of Central Banking Theory and Practice, Central bank of Montenegro, vol. 11(3), pages 33-57.
    3. Marco Manacorda & Guido Tabellini & Andrea Tesei, 2022. "Mobile internet and the rise of political tribalism in Europe," CEP Discussion Papers dp1877, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    4. Joël Cariolle & Florian Léon, 2022. "How internet helped firms to cope with COVID-19," Working Papers hal-03592617, HAL.
    5. Joël Cariolle & Yasmine Elkhateeb & Mathilde Maurel, 2022. "(Mis-)information technology: Internet use and perception of democracy in Africa," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 22010, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    6. Marco Manacorda & Andrea Tesei, 2020. "Liberation Technology: Mobile Phones and Political Mobilization in Africa," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(2), pages 533-567, March.
    7. Eleonora Granziera & Vegard H. Larsen & Greta Meggiorini & Leonardo Melosi, 2025. "Speaking of Inflation: The Influence of Fed Speeches on Expectations," CESifo Working Paper Series 11992, CESifo.
    8. Tähtinen, Tuuli, 2024. "When Facebook Is the Internet: The Role of Social Media in Ethnic Conflict," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    9. Sergei Guriev & Elias Papaioannou, 2022. "The Political Economy of Populism," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 60(3), pages 753-832, September.
    10. repec:bla:jcmkts:v:47:y:2009:i::p:453-481 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Giacomo Battiston, 2022. "Rescue on Stage: Border Enforcement and Public Attention in the Mediterranean Sea," "Marco Fanno" Working Papers 0292, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche "Marco Fanno".
    12. Nicola Fontana & Marco Manacorda & Gianluca Russo & Marco Tabellini, 2025. "Emigration and Long-Run Economic Development: Evidence from the Italian Mass Migration," Trinity Economics Papers tep1125, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics.
    13. Enrique López-Bazo, 2021. "Does regional growth affect public attitudes towards the European Union?," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 66(3), pages 755-778, June.
    14. Yasmine Elkhateeb & Riccardo Turati & Jérôme Valette, 2025. "Immigration, Identity Choices, and Cultural Diversity," RFBerlin Discussion Paper Series 25120, ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin).
    15. Gabriele Gratton & Barton E Lee, 2024. "Liberty, Security, and Accountability: The Rise and Fall of Illiberal Democracies," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 91(1), pages 340-371.
    16. Donato Masciandaro & Davide Romelli & Gaia Rubera, 2021. "Monetary policy and financial markets: evidence from Twitter traffic," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 21160, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    17. Arnorsson, Agust & Zoega, Gylfi, 2018. "On the causes of Brexit," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 301-323.
    18. Donati, Dante, 2023. "Mobile Internet access and political outcomes: Evidence from South Africa," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    19. Beknazar-Yuzbashev, George & Jiménez Durán, Rafael & McCrosky, Jesse & Stalinski, Mateusz, 2025. "Toxic content and user engagement on social media: Evidence from a field experiment," Working Papers 359, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State.
    20. Travis Adams & Andrea Ajello & Diego Silva & Francisco Vazquez-Grande, 2023. "More than Words: Twitter Chatter and Financial Market Sentiment," Papers 2305.16164, arXiv.org.
    21. Bharati, Tushar & Jetter, Michael & Malik, Muhammad Nauman, 2024. "Types of communications technology and civil conflict," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • A12 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Other Disciplines
    • A13 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Social Values
    • E10 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - General
    • H10 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - General
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • L82 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Entertainment; Media
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • P50 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Comparative Economic Systems - - - General
    • R10 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - General

    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:ehl:lserod:127880. 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: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    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.