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When do people trust their government?

Author

Listed:
  • Goodhart, C. A. E.
  • Hoang Vu, Ly

Abstract

There has been widespread concern about the decrease in trust in government and the need to regain it. Policymakers and researchers have been working on reasons for this, and how to reverse it. In this study, we rely on a recent sample prepared by the World Values Survey, wave 7. It includes over 81,000 observations across 52 countries for the years 2017 - 22. Our study offers three main findings. The first is that economic growth plays a crucial role in determining trust in government, and its importance appears consistent across all regions. The second is the presence of a "Trust Paradox," whereby trust in government tends to be lower in fully democratic countries compared to single-party states, with the exception of Latin America. The third is that migration generally is positively related to trust in government. We explain this by noting that, historically, this has often been the case; however, when inward migration exceeds a certain threshold, the effect on trust often shifts.

Suggested Citation

  • Goodhart, C. A. E. & Hoang Vu, Ly, 2025. "When do people trust their government?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 127880, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:127880
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    democracy; economic growth; immigration; media; trust in government; trust paradox;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A12 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Other Disciplines
    • A13 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Social Values
    • E10 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - General
    • H10 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - General
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • L82 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Entertainment; Media
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • P50 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Comparative Economic Systems - - - General
    • R10 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - General

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