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 …

In recent years, many social scientists have claimed that trust plays an important role in economic and social … transactions. Despite its proposed importance, the measurement and the definition of trust seem to be not fully settled, and the … identification of the exact role of trust in economic interactions has proven to be elusive. It is still not clear whether trust is …