Institutional Trust, Perceptions of Distributive Unfairness, and Income across Salvadoran Municipalities

Using multiple waves of two public opinion surveys and a two-way fixed effect model, this paperanalyzes how people’s perceptions and attitudes towards public institutions shifted with the business cycle in ElSalvador during 2004–2018. It finds that individuals’ levels of trust toward both the president and the municipalgovernment are positively associated with higher levels of income at the municipality level. Income is also a strongpredictor of trust in mass media, confidence in the judicial system and, to a lesser extent, trust in the nationallegislature but income does not affect trust in the Catholic Church. The relationship between income and trust toward thepresident and municipalities masks a relevant heterogeneity from a rural-urban divide as well as from differences inmunicipal state capacity. Further, views of income distribution fairness as well as preferences for democracyare positively shaped by municipality-specific business cycles. In contrast, neither generalized trust norsatisfaction with democracy is empirically associated with income at the municipality level.