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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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

This paper studies the transmission mechanism from family culture to economic institutions, by analyzing the impact of …

In this paper we investigate the long- and short-run relationships between disasters and societal trust. A growing body … determinants of social capital in general, and trust in particular. We present new cross-country and panel data evidence of another … important determinant of trust—the frequency of natural disasters. Frequent naturally occurring events such as storms require …