Institutional Quality and Generalized Trust: A Nonrecursive Causal Model

Robbins, Blaine G.

doi:10.1007/s11205-011-9838-1

Cited by 94 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 70 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Monarchies and Nordic countries are more trusting while post-communist and more religious countries are less so. The results thus confirm the main findings in the most recent studies in the field (Berggren and Bjørnskov, 2011;Robbins, 2012). Although the full sample covers an additional 15 least developed countries, results in the appendix show that the results in columns 1 and 3 are remarkably similar.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 85%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Trust, Welfare States and Income Equality: What Causes What?

Bergh

Bjørnskov

2013

SSRN Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Abstract: The cross-country correlation between social trust and income equality is well Terms of use: Documents in EconStor maydocumented, but few studies examine the direction of causality. We show theoretically that by facilitating cooperation, trust may increase efficiency and lead to more equal outcomes, while the feedback from inequality to trust is ambiguous. Using a structural equations model estimated on a large country sample, we find that trust has a positive effect on both market and net income equality. Larger welfare states lead to higher net equality but neither net income equality nor welfare state size seems to have a causal effect on trust. We conclude that while trust facilitates welfare state policies that may reduce net inequality, this decrease in inequality does not increase trust. (2004) and also Kumlin and Rothstein (2005). On the other hand, if the crosscountry correlation between income equality and social trust is driven only by the fact that deeply rooted trust levels explain both trust today and the degree of welfare state redistribution, there is no feed-back dynamic from redistributive welfare state policies to trust. KeywordsThe possible causal relations are illustrated in Figure 1, where full arrows show causal relations argued for in previous literature. This paper investigates the causality between trust and equality, and the potential role of welfare state policies as mediators of the causal associations.We do so by exploring two central questions, not dealt with before. First, do welfare states have an independent effect on income equality, or is the correlation between welfare state size and income equality spurious, in the sense that trust explains both welfare state size and income equality? Second, if welfare states do increase equality of income, does this further increase trust, suggesting a positive feedback dynamics?Figure 1: The correlations between welfare state size, social trust and income equality.Departing from a standard cooperation game, we show that the overall type of cooperation facilitated by trust and trustworthiness will under plausible circumstances increase equality. We then estimate structural equations models that account for potential feedback effects between income equality and social trust. The results document a two-way causal relation between market (pre-redistribution) income inequality and social trust, but no feedback from net inequality to trust. Furthermore, the effect from trust t...

show abstract

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 85%

“…We include religiosity following Berggren and Bjørnskov (2011) while monarchy is included based on previous research in Bjørnskov (2007,2010) and Robbins (2012). Variables common to both inequality and trust, i.e.…”

Section: Identifying Causality Using a Structural Equations Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trust, Welfare States and Income Equality: What Causes What?

Bergh

Bjørnskov

2013

SSRN Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…As robust and efficient (Robbins 2012), this study used 2SLS estimation in Stata. In particular, following Robbins's (2012) strategy-while in nonrecursive SEM settings, no tests are widely available to directly check instrument validity (Light et al 2003) and ''for a long time, .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing the Reciprocal Relationship between Attitudes and Land Use in Relation to Trip Frequencies

Gim

2013

International Regional Science Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Nonrecursive structural equation modeling is applied to cross-sectional data from a survey conducted in Seoul, Korea, in 2009 and from geographic information systems, in an effort to model the reciprocal relationship between attitudes toward travel modes and land use in a neighborhood. Then, this study examines how the direction of the relationship differentiates the effects that the two factors have on trip frequencies. The direction is found to be contingent on trip purpose, that is, the attitudes-land use relationship is recursive for commuting trips, reciprocal for leisure trips, and insignificant for shopping trips. If the attitudes are omitted altogether, the estimated land use effect decreases considerably for commuting trips and slightly for leisure trips, which suggests the degree to which residential self-selection is concerned with these purposes of trips.Keywords land use and urban form, urban and regional spatial structure, spatial structure, residential location, neighborhood, human spatial structure, spatial structure, spatial interaction, transportation, human spatial structure, spatial structure, growth

show abstract

“…With this data, I followed the WVS wave structure and compiled a three-wave unbalanced panel spanning 15 years (1995–1998, 1999–2004, 2005–2009). I then aggregated generalized trust responses to create a measure of the proportion of respondents – multiplied by 100– who said that most people can be trusted (ranging from 0 to 100) when asked the following question: “Generally speaking, would you say that most people can be trusted or that you need to be very careful in dealing with people?” This is the prevailing measure of generalized trust used in the social sciences [19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24], [25], [26], [27]. All generalized trust data were frequency weighted when available (e.g., WVS S017).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cooperation without Culture? The Null Effect of Generalized Trust on Intentional Homicide: A Cross-National Panel Analysis, 1995–2009

Robbins

2013

PLoS ONE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sociologists, political scientists, and economists all suggest that culture plays a pivotal role in the development of large-scale cooperation. In this study, I used generalized trust as a measure of culture to explore if and how culture impacts intentional homicide, my operationalization of cooperation. I compiled multiple cross-national data sets and used pooled time-series linear regression, single-equation instrumental-variables linear regression, and fixed- and random-effects estimation techniques on an unbalanced panel of 118 countries and 232 observations spread over a 15-year time period. Results suggest that culture and large-scale cooperation form a tenuous relationship, while economic factors such as development, inequality, and geopolitics appear to drive large-scale cooperation.

show abstract

Institutional Quality and Generalized Trust: A Nonrecursive Causal Model

Cited by 94 publications

References 70 publications

Trust, Welfare States and Income Equality: What Causes What?

Trust, Welfare States and Income Equality: What Causes What?

Testing the Reciprocal Relationship between Attitudes and Land Use in Relation to Trip Frequencies

Cooperation without Culture? The Null Effect of Generalized Trust on Intentional Homicide: A Cross-National Panel Analysis, 1995–2009

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About