This paper draws on a natural experiment to identify the relationship between income and trust. We use a unique panel dataset on Russia where GDP experienced an 8 percent drop in 2009. The effect of the crisis had been very uneven among Russian regions because of their differences in industrial...

Scholars have long argued that social trust contributes to economic growth and development. This paper looks at the relationship between income and trust by taking data from Russia, where GDP dropped by 8 per cent in 2009. We find that a drop in income is associated with a decrease in social...