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. …

This paper aims to show that culture is an important determinant of the effectiveness of formal democratic institutions … elections. These results support the view that social capital complements democratic institutions such as elections. …

countries, communities on both sides of the long-gone Habsburg border have been sharing common formal institutions for a century …

We document that trust in public institutions--and particularly trust in banks, business and government--has declined … institutions. Cross-country comparisons reveal a clear legacy of the Great Recession, and those countries whose unemployment grew … the most suffered the biggest loss in confidence in institutions, particularly in trust in government and the financial …

-2000 period. Our main conclusion is that race, rather than political institutions and education policies, is the main force …