Quantitative Economics

Journal Of The Econometric Society

Edited by: Stéphane Bonhomme • Print ISSN: 1759-7323 • Online ISSN: 1759-7331

Quantitative Economics: Jan, 2024, Volume 15, Issue 1

Measuring Trust in Institutions and its Causal Effect

https://doi.org/10.3982/QE1914
p. 213-243

Stefan P. Penczynski, Maria Isabel Santana

We propose a novel way of measuring trust in institutions, which draws on the experimental method used to elicit time preferences. Our measure is provided in the meaningful metric of the subjective probability of trustworthiness of the trustee. In a lab‐in‐the‐field setting in the Philippines, we measure trust in two different financial institutions. Additionally, we exploit exogenous variation in the eligibility for a future payment to examine whether a promise fulfilled by the institution increases trust and changes individual financial behavior. We find that eligible individuals significantly increase savings held with the institution.


Full Content: Print

Supplemental Material

Supplement to "Measuring Trust in Institutions and its Causal Effect"

Stefan P. Penczynski and Maria Isabel Santana

This appendix contains material not found within the manuscript.

Supplement to "Measuring Trust in Institutions and its Causal Effect"

Stefan P. Penczynski and Maria Isabel Santana

Experimental Instructions

Supplement to "Measuring Trust in Institutions and its Causal Effect"

Stefan P. Penczynski and Maria Isabel Santana

The replication package for this paper is available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8199884. The Journal checked the data and codes included in the package for their ability to reproduce the results in the paper and approved online appendices.

Journal News

View