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Measuring Trust in European Public Institutions

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  • Marco Marozzi

Abstract

The problem of measuring the general level of trust in public institutions is addressed. A very general framework to compute an index of trust in public institutions is proposed and it is shown how to perform an uncertainty analysis of an index of trust to test its robustness. An application to data from the sixth round of the European Social Survey is presented. It is found that Scandinavian countries are the most trustful European countries in public institutions, whereas former communist countries as well as Iberian and Mediterranean ones are much less trustful. The governments of the least trustful countries in public institutions should be very careful in monitoring this issue and should think about introducing reforms to improve citizens’ trust. Improving trust in public institutions is central to improve social capital, participation in civic activities and law-abiding behavior and then governmental legitimacy. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

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  • Marco Marozzi, 2015. "Measuring Trust in European Public Institutions," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 123(3), pages 879-895, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:123:y:2015:i:3:p:879-895
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-014-0765-9
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    14. Robinson, Stephen Cory, 2020. "Trust, transparency, and openness: How inclusion of cultural values shapes Nordic national public policy strategies for artificial intelligence (AI)," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    15. Irene Daskalopoulou, 2016. "Social capital at the outburst of the economic crisis in Greece, 2008-2010," International Journal of Business and Economic Sciences Applied Research (IJBESAR), Democritus University of Thrace (DUTH), Kavala Campus, Greece, vol. 9(2), pages 79-86, June.
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    18. Irene Daskalopoulou, 2019. "Individual-Level Evidence on the Causal Relationship Between Social Trust and Institutional Trust," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 144(1), pages 275-298, July.
    19. Sebastian Himmler & Job Exel & Werner Brouwer, 2022. "Did the COVID-19 pandemic change the willingness to pay for an early warning system for infectious diseases in Europe?," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 23(1), pages 81-94, February.
    20. Marozzi Marco & Chowdhury Shovan, 2020. "An index of teaching performance based on students’ feedback," Monte Carlo Methods and Applications, De Gruyter, vol. 26(2), pages 83-91, June.
    21. Di Tommaso, Marco R. & Prodi, Elena & Pollio, Chiara & Barbieri, Elisa, 2023. "Conceptualizing and measuring “industry resilience”: Composite indicators for postshock industrial policy decision-making," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    22. Daskalopoulou, Eirini, 2018. "Voting turnout in Greece: expressive or instrumental?," MPRA Paper 88064, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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