IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jtrust/v5y2015i1p55-77.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The causal nexus between trust, institutions and cooperation in international relations

Author

Listed:
  • Christoph Elhardt

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to dissect the causal nexus between trust, institutions and cooperation in international relations (IR) and to highlight the theoretical and empirical potential of bringing trust from the periphery to the centre of our debates about international cooperation. My central argument is that the concept of trust allows us to explain particularly risky forms of international cooperation where the costs of being exploited outweigh the potential gains of cooperation, actors have an incentive to defect if others cooperate, and uncertainty about others' preferences and constraints cannot be fully reduced by international institutions. As most institutions in IR remain incomplete, scholars of international cooperation should hence pay more attention to trust-based forms of risk absorption. Moreover, the paper argues that the creation of trust is best conceptualised as a process of costly signalling. In order to test the causal link between trust and cooperation, the paper analyses Germany's consent to give up the Deutschmark and to create a common European currency in 1989. Germany's initial mistrust regarding France's trustworthiness in monetary affairs could be overcome by the exchange of costly signals. I show that the creation of trust was a necessary part of a causal mechanism bridging the analytical gap between Germany's general preferences for monetary cooperation and the actual creation of European Monetary Union under conditions of risk and uncertainty.

Suggested Citation

  • Christoph Elhardt, 2015. "The causal nexus between trust, institutions and cooperation in international relations," Journal of Trust Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(1), pages 55-77, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:jtrust:v:5:y:2015:i:1:p:55-77
    DOI: 10.1080/21515581.2015.1007459
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/21515581.2015.1007459
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/21515581.2015.1007459?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. ,, 2009. "Economics of Monetary Union," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, edition 8, number 9780199563234.
    2. Beckert, Jens, 2005. "Trust and the Performative Construction of Markets," MPIfG Discussion Paper 05/8, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    Full references (including those not matched with items 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. Bernd Hayo & Matthias Neuenkirch, 2018. "Central Banks' Predictability: An Assessment by Financial Market Participants," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 14(4), pages 163-185, September.
    2. Yochanan Shachmurove & Alojzy Z. Nowak, 2012. "Failing Institutions Are at the Core of the Euro Crisis," PIER Working Paper Archive 12-041, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania.
    3. Léo Aparisi de Lannoy & Xavier Ragot, 2017. "Une (ré) assurance chômage européenne," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03455381, HAL.
    4. Kai Daniel Schmid & Michael Schmidt, 2012. "EMU and the Renaissance of Sovereign Credit Risk Perception," IAW Discussion Papers 87, Institut für Angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung (IAW).
    5. Leith, Campbell & Wren-Lewis, Simon, 2011. "Discretionary policy in a monetary union with sovereign debt," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 93-117, January.
    6. Auray, Stéphane & de Blas, Beatriz & Eyquem, Aurélien, 2011. "Ramsey policies in a small open economy with sticky prices and capital," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 35(9), pages 1531-1546, September.
    7. Corsetti, Giancarlo & Dedola, Luca & Jarociński, Marek & Maćkowiak, Bartosz & Schmidt, Sebastian, 2019. "Macroeconomic stabilization, monetary-fiscal interactions, and Europe's monetary union," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 22-33.
    8. Martin Gächter & Alexander Gruber & Aleksandra Riedl, 2017. "Wage Divergence, Business Cycle Co-Movement and the Currency Union Effect," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(6), pages 1322-1342, November.
    9. Syed Abul Basher & Stefano Fachin, 2014. "Investigating long-run demand for broad money in the Gulf Arab countries," Middle East Development Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(2), pages 199-214, July.
    10. Michel Beine & Pauline Bourgeon & Jean‐Charles Bricongne, 2019. "Aggregate Fluctuations and International Migration," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 121(1), pages 117-152, January.
    11. Horst, Maximilian & Neyer, Ulrike & Stempel, Daniel, 2020. "Asymmetric macroeconomic effects of QE-induced increases in excess reserves in a monetary union," DICE Discussion Papers 346, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    12. Samba Diop & Simplice A. Asongu, 2020. "An Index of African Monetary Integration (IAMI)," Working Papers 20/003, European Xtramile Centre of African Studies (EXCAS).
    13. Sandra Schmidt & Dieter Nautz, 2012. "Central Bank Communication and the Perception of Monetary Policy by Financial Market Experts," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 44, pages 323-340, March.
    14. Christian Keuschnigg & Klaus Weyerstrass, 2015. "Macroeconomic Adjustment and Institutional Reforms in the Euro Area," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 21(3), pages 275-285, August.
    15. Giovannini, Massimo & Hohberger, Stefan & Kollmann, Robert & Ratto, Marco & Roeger, Werner & Vogel, Lukas, 2019. "Euro Area and US external adjustment: The role of commodity prices and Emerging Market shocks," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 183-205.
    16. Celsa Machado & Ana Paula Ribeiro, 2011. "Stabilization Constraints from different-average Public Debt Levels in a Monetary Union with Country-size Asymmetry," EcoMod2011 3152, EcoMod.
    17. Andrea Ferrero, 2012. "The Advantage of Flexible Targeting Rules," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 44(5), pages 863-881, August.
    18. Simplice Asongu & Jacinta C. Nwachukwu & Vanessa S. Tchamyou, 2017. "A summary of a survey on proposed African monetary unions," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 17/008, African Governance and Development Institute..
    19. Hoffmann Andreas, 2013. "The Euro as a Proxy for the Classical Gold Standard? Government Debt Financing and Political Commitment in Historical Perspective," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 19(1), pages 41-61, November.
    20. Syed Basher, 2015. "Regional initiative in the Gulf Arab States: the search for a common currency," International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 8(2), pages 185-202, June.

    More about this item

    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:taf:jtrust:v:5:y:2015:i:1:p:55-77. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RJTR20 .

    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.