IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jeborg/v214y2023icp443-458.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does globalization suppress social trust?

Author

Listed:
  • Berggren, Niclas
  • Bjørnskov, Christian

Abstract

Globalization has been on the increase during the past 50 years, and there are now signs of a backlash. Part of the reason may be the widely held belief that globalization is harmful, not least for the cultural fabric. Is that the case? We investigate whether globalization has suppressed social trust, arguably one of the most beneficial characteristics of people in a society. By using a sample of first- and second-generation immigrants in 33 primarily European countries, we apply the epidemiological method to rule out reverse causality; and by using the KOF Index of Globalization, we study effects of economic, social and political globalization separately. We find that especially social globalization, and to some extent economic globalization, are positively related to social trust, with a small effect size, while political globalization is largely unrelated to it. Overall, this indicates that globalization does not pose a danger for social trust – at least not for people with a migration background. If anything, people seem to become slightly more trusting with more globalization.

Suggested Citation

  • Berggren, Niclas & Bjørnskov, Christian, 2023. "Does globalization suppress social trust?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 443-458.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:214:y:2023:i:c:p:443-458
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2023.08.018
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268123003062
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jebo.2023.08.018?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Berggren, Niclas & Daunfeldt, Sven-Olov & Hellström, Jörgen, 2014. "Social trust and central-bank independence," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 425-439.
    2. Robert C. Feenstra & Robert Inklaar & Marcel P. Timmer, 2015. "The Next Generation of the Penn World Table," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(10), pages 3150-3182, October.
    3. Kenneth S. Chan, 2007. "Trade, Social Values, and the Generalized Trust," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 73(3), pages 733-753, January.
    4. Endrich, Marek, 2020. "A Window to the World: The long-term effect of Television on Hate Crime," ILE Working Paper Series 33, University of Hamburg, Institute of Law and Economics.
    5. Friedrich Heinemann & Benjamin Tanz, 2008. "The impact of trust on reforms," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 11(3), pages 173-185.
    6. Potrafke, Niklas & Ursprung, Heinrich W., 2012. "Globalization and gender equality in the course of development," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 399-413.
    7. Dani Rodrik, 2018. "Populism and the economics of globalization," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 1(1), pages 12-33, June.
    8. Yann Algan & Pierre Cahuc, 2010. "Inherited Trust and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(5), pages 2060-2092, December.
    9. Andreas Bergh & Anders Kärnä, 2021. "Globalization and populism in Europe," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 189(1), pages 51-70, October.
    10. Egger, Hartmut & Fischer, Christian, 2020. "Increasing resistance to globalization: The role of trade in tasks," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    11. Coneus, Katja & Laucht, Manfred & Reuß, Karsten, 2012. "The role of parental investments for cognitive and noncognitive skill formation—Evidence for the first 11 years of life," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 189-209.
    12. Bjrnskov, Christian, 2009. "Social trust and the growth of schooling," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 249-257, April.
    13. Christian Bjørnskov, 2007. "Determinants of generalized trust: A cross-country comparison," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 130(1), pages 1-21, January.
    14. Megan V. Teague & Virgil Henry Storr & Rosemarie Fike, 2020. "Economic freedom and materialism: an empirical analysis," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 1-44, March.
    15. Niclas Berggren & Christian Bjørnskov, 2017. "The Market‐Promoting and Market‐Preserving Role of Social Trust in Reforms of Policies and Institutions," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 84(1), pages 3-25, July.
    16. Andreas Lichter & Max Löffler & Sebastian Siegloch, 2021. "The Long-Term Costs of Government Surveillance: Insights from Stasi Spying in East Germany," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 19(2), pages 741-789.
    17. Berggren, Niclas & Nilsson, Therese, 2015. "Globalization and the transmission of social values: The case of tolerance," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 371-389.
    18. Nikolova, Milena & Popova, Olga & Otrachshenko, Vladimir, 2022. "Stalin and the origins of mistrust," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    19. Niclas Berggren & Therese Nilsson, 2013. "Does Economic Freedom Foster Tolerance?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(2), pages 177-207, May.
    20. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/432sbils8u9t7qa99cii5psht1 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Papagapitos, Agapitos & Riley, Robert, 2009. "Social trust and human capital formation," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 102(3), pages 158-160, March.
    22. Eliana La Ferrara & Alberto Chong & Suzanne Duryea, 2012. "Soap Operas and Fertility: Evidence from Brazil," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 4(4), pages 1-31, October.
    23. Thomas Dohmen & Armin Falk & David Huffman & Uwe Sunde, 2012. "The Intergenerational Transmission of Risk and Trust Attitudes," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 79(2), pages 645-677.
    24. Berggren, Niclas & Bjørnskov, Christian, 2011. "Is the importance of religion in daily life related to social trust? Cross-country and cross-state comparisons," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 80(3), pages 459-480.
    25. Niclas Berggren & Mikael Elinder & Henrik Jordahl, 2008. "Trust and growth: a shaky relationship," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 35(2), pages 251-274, September.
    26. Romain Wacziarg & Karen Horn Welch, 2008. "Trade Liberalization and Growth: New Evidence," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 22(2), pages 187-231, June.
    27. Hans Pitlik & Martin Rode, 2021. "Radical Distrust: Are Economic Policy Attitudes Tempered by Social Trust?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 158(2), pages 485-506, December.
    28. Dufwenberg, Martin & Johansson-Stenman, Olof & Kirchler, Michael & Lindner, Florian & Schwaiger, Rene, 2022. "Mean markets or kind commerce?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
      • Martin Dufwenberg & Olof Johansson Stenman & Michael Kirchler & Florian Lindner & Rene Schwaiger, 2021. "Mean Markets or Kind Commerce?," Working Papers 2021-07, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    29. Bisin, Alberto & Verdier, Thierry, 2001. "The Economics of Cultural Transmission and the Dynamics of Preferences," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 298-319, April.
    30. Friedrich Heinemann & Benjamin Tanz, 2008. "The impact of trust on reforms," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 11(3), pages 173-185.
    31. Ljunge, Martin, 2014. "Social capital and political institutions: Evidence that democracy fosters trust," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 122(1), pages 44-49.
    32. Dani Rodrik, 1998. "Has Globalization Gone Too Far?," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(2), pages 81-94, March.
    33. Delia Baldassarri, 2020. "Market integration accounts for local variation in generalized altruism in a nationwide lost-letter experiment," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 117(6), pages 2858-2863, February.
    34. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2008. "Trusting the Stock Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(6), pages 2557-2600, December.
    35. Dani Rodrik, 2021. "Why Does Globalization Fuel Populism? Economics, Culture, and the Rise of Right-Wing Populism," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 13(1), pages 133-170, August.
    36. Johannes C Buggle & Ruben Durante, 2021. "Climate Risk, Cooperation and the Co-Evolution of Culture and Institutions," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 131(637), pages 1947-1987.
    37. Raquel Fernández & Alessandra Fogli & Claudia Olivetti, 2004. "Mothers and Sons: Preference Formation and Female Labor Force Dynamics," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(4), pages 1249-1299.
    38. Ljunge, Martin, 2014. "Trust issues: Evidence on the intergenerational trust transmission among children of immigrants," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 175-196.
    39. Bjørnskov, Christian, 2021. "Civic honesty and cultures of trust," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    40. Bryan Caplan & Tyler Cowen, 2004. "Do We Underestimate the Benefits of Cultural Competition?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(2), pages 402-407, May.
    41. Bhagwati, Jagdish, 2007. "In Defense of Globalization: With a New Afterword," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195330939.
    42. John F. Helliwell & Shun Wang & Jinwen Xu, 2016. "How Durable are Social Norms? Immigrant Trust and Generosity in 132 Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 128(1), pages 201-219, August.
    43. Niclas Berggren & Henrik Jordahl, 2006. "Free to Trust: Economic Freedom and Social Capital," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(2), pages 141-169, May.
    44. Ming-Chang Tsai, 2007. "Does globali zation affect human well-being?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 81(1), pages 103-126, March.
    45. Frederick Solt, 2020. "Measuring Income Inequality Across Countries and Over Time: The Standardized World Income Inequality Database," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 101(3), pages 1183-1199, May.
    46. van Hoorn, Andre, 2017. "Social trust, workplace organization, and the comparative advantage of nations," MPRA Paper 80017, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    47. Niclas Berggren & Therese Nilsson, 2014. "Market institutions bring tolerance, especially where there is social trust," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(17), pages 1234-1237, November.
    48. Kenneth S. Chan, 2007. "Trade, Social Values, and the Generalized Trust," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 73(3), pages 733-753, January.
    49. Nathan Nunn & Leonard Wantchekon, 2011. "The Slave Trade and the Origins of Mistrust in Africa," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(7), pages 3221-3252, December.
    50. Niklas Potrafke, 2015. "The Evidence on Globalisation," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(3), pages 509-552, March.
    51. Christopher J. Coyne & Claudia R. Williamson, 2012. "Trade openness and cultural creative destruction," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 1(1), pages 22-49, April.
    52. Callais, Justin & Harris, Colin & Borchard, Ben, 2022. "The moral costs of markets: Testing the deterioration hypothesis," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 200-220.
    53. Christian Bjørnskov & Martin Rode, 2020. "Regime types and regime change: A new dataset on democracy, coups, and political institutions," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 531-551, April.
    54. Indra de Soysa & Krishna Chaitanya Vadlamannati, 2011. "Does Being Bound Together Suffocate, or Liberate? The Effects of Economic, Social, and Political Globalization on Human Rights, 1981–2005," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(1), pages 20-53, February.
    55. Christian Bjørnskov, 2012. "How Does Social Trust Affect Economic Growth?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 78(4), pages 1346-1368, April.
    56. Leibrecht, Markus & Pitlik, Hans, 2015. "Social trust, institutional and political constraints on the executive and deregulation of markets," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 249-268.
    57. Axel Dreher & Martin Gassebner & Lars-H. R. Siemers, 2012. "Globalization, Economic Freedom, and Human Rights," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 56(3), pages 516-546, June.
    58. Bergh, Andreas & Öhrvall, Richard, 2018. "A sticky trait: Social trust among Swedish expatriates in countries with varying institutional quality," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 1146-1157.
    59. Christian Bjørnskov, 2010. "How does social trust lead to better governance? An attempt to separate electoral and bureaucratic mechanisms," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 144(1), pages 323-346, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. repec:zbw:vfsc24:302413 is not listed on IDEAS

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Berggren, Niclas & Nilsson, Therese, 2015. "Globalization and the transmission of social values: The case of tolerance," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 371-389.
    2. Peiró-Palomino, Jesús & Gianmoena, Lisa & Picazo-Tadeo, Andrés J. & Rios, Vicente, 2024. "Social trust and the advanced aspects of social progress. Evidence for the European regions," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    3. Berggren, Niclas & Daunfeldt, Sven-Olov & Hellström, Jörgen, 2014. "Social trust and central-bank independence," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 425-439.
    4. Berggren, Niclas & Ljunge, Martin & Nilsson, Therese, 2023. "Immigrants from more tolerant cultures integrate deeper into destination countries," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 1095-1108.
    5. Berggren, Niclas & Ljunge, Martin & Nilsson, Therese, 2022. "Immigrants’ Tolerance and Integration into Society," Working Paper Series 1447, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    6. Johansson, Alva & Berggren, Niclas & Nilsson, Therese, 2022. "Intolerance predicts climate skepticism," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    7. Jesús Peiró-Palomino & Lisa Gianmoena & Andrés J. Picazo-Tadeo & Vicente Ríos, 2023. "Does social trust determine social progress? Evidence for the European regions," Working Papers 2305, Department of Applied Economics II, Universidad de Valencia.
    8. Hans Pitlik & Martin Rode, 2021. "Radical Distrust: Are Economic Policy Attitudes Tempered by Social Trust?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 158(2), pages 485-506, December.
    9. Wahl, Fabian, 2012. "Why it matters what people think: Beliefs, legal origins and the deep roots of trust," FZID Discussion Papers 52-2012, University of Hohenheim, Center for Research on Innovation and Services (FZID).
    10. Choi, Ginny Seung & Storr, Virgil Henry, 2023. "The morality of markets in theory and empirics," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 590-607.
    11. Niclas Berggren & Christian Bjørnskov, 2017. "The Market‐Promoting and Market‐Preserving Role of Social Trust in Reforms of Policies and Institutions," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 84(1), pages 3-25, July.
    12. Berggren, Niclas & Nilsson, Therese, 2021. "Economic freedom and antisemitism," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 17(2), pages 289-304, April.
    13. Christian Bjørnskov, 2012. "On the determinants of honesty perceptions in the United States," Rationality and Society, , vol. 24(3), pages 257-294, August.
    14. Niclas Berggren & Andreas Bergh & Christian Bjørnskov & Shiori Tanaka, 2020. "Migrants and Life Satisfaction: The Role of the Country of Origin and the Country of Residence," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(3), pages 436-463, August.
    15. Christian Bjørnskov & Pierre-Guillaume Méon, 2013. "Is trust the missing root of institutions, education, and development?," Post-Print CEB, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles, vol. 157(3-4), pages 641-669, December.
    16. Christian Bjørnskov, 2022. "Social trust and patterns of growth," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 89(1), pages 216-237, July.
    17. Ljunge, Martin, 2014. "Trust issues: Evidence on the intergenerational trust transmission among children of immigrants," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 175-196.
    18. Berggren, Niclas & Ljunge, Martin & Nilsson, Therese, 2019. "Roots of tolerance among second-generation immigrants," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(6), pages 999-1016, December.
    19. Corrado Giulietti & Enrico Rettore & Sara Tonini, 2023. "The chips are down: the influence of family on children’s trust formation," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(1), pages 211-233, January.
    20. Bjørnskov, Christian & Méon, Pierre-Guillaume, 2015. "The Productivity of Trust," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 317-331.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Globalization; Openness; Trade; Institutions; Culture; Trust;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F01 - International Economics - - General - - - Global Outlook
    • F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General
    • P45 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Other Economic Systems - - - International Linkages
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:214:y:2023:i:c:p:443-458. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jebo .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.