Does culture have a causal effect on economic development? The data on European regions suggest that it does. Culture … is measured by indicators of individual values and beliefs, such as trust and respect for others, and confidence in … individual self-determination. To isolate the exogenous variation in culture, I rely on two historical variables used as …

Trust affects almost all human relationships – in families, organizations, markets and politics. However, identifying … the conditions under which trust, defined as people’s beliefs in the trustworthiness of others, has a causal effect on the … efficiency of human interactions has proven to be difficult. We show experimentally and theoretically that trust indeed has a …

Institutions are important for proper economic performance, but are replaceable by trust or other social norms. We show … that when proper institutions and trust are missing, integrity of the individuals can replace them. We construct a model of … a transactions-based economy with contracts preceding the transactions, and show that any one of (1) institutions, (2 …

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 …

Formal or informal institutions have long been adopted by societies to protect against opportunistic behavior. However …, we know very little about how these institutions are chosen and their impact on behavior. We experimentally investigate … the demand for different levels of institutions that provide low to high levels of insurance and its subsequent impact on …

Under weak contract enforcement the trading parties’ trust, defined as their belief in other’s trustworthiness, appears … appear less important, suggesting that trust and contract enforcement are substitutes. Here we show, however, that trust and … contract enforcement are complements. We demonstrate that under weak contract enforcement trust has no effect on gains from …

regions rich in marine resources differ from societies with a purely agrarian legacy in terms of institutions, cultural values …

eliminated by trade. We provide an evolutionary model of endogenous preferences and institutions under autarchy, trade and factor …