This paper aims to show that culture is an important determinant of the effectiveness of formal democratic institutions … electoral reforms in Chinese villages. We use the presence of village temples to proxy for culture, or more specifically, for … elections. These results support the view that social capital complements democratic institutions such as elections. …

We document that trust in public institutions--and particularly trust in banks, business and government--has declined … the most suffered the biggest loss in confidence in institutions, particularly in trust in government and the financial … over recent years. U.S. time series evidence suggests that this partly reflects the pro-cyclical nature of trust in …

localized and well-respected administration increased citizens’ trust in local public services. In several Eastern European … countries, communities on both sides of the long-gone Habsburg border have been sharing common formal institutions for a century … Habsburg affiliation increases current trust and reduces corruption in courts and police. Falsification tests of spuriously …

This survey reviews the recent research on trust, institutions and economic development. It discusses the various … institutions and policies can affect trust and promote pro-social behaviors. … measures of trust and documents the substantial heterogeneity of trust across space and time. The conceptual mechanisms that …

’s conjecture that today marked differences in social capital between the North and South of Italy were due to the culture of …

How and why does distant political and economic history shape the functioning of current institutions? This paper … (as opposed to limited) morality are widespread in societies that were ruled by non-despotic political institutions in the … distant past. Second, well functioning institutions are often observed in countries or regions where individual values are …

fails to identify a single ‘southern’ culture but points to a ‘northern’ culture. Our findings support the relevance of … cultural predispositions for financial behavior; and convergence of behavior over time in the face of common institutions, even … for countries with great cultural distance from the country that created those institutions. …

innovation in an individualist culture. This cultural effect may offset the negative effects of bad institutions on growth … effect between culture and institutions. … individualism on growth through innovation. Using genetic data as instruments for culture we provide strong evidence of a causal …