Two types of trust - A European study based on learnings from one of the most trusting countries in the world

Sammanfattning: The research field of trust has recently flourished as it has become a widely discussed topic within various academic arenas such as political science, history, psychology, management and economics. High trust levels stimulate trade through reduced transaction costs which fuels economic growth. Our research aims to connect two opposing theories regarding the construction of social trust to an economic perspective. Using a pooled cross-sectional dataset with seven rounds of the European Social Survey we apply one of the theories to examine if social trust and trust in public institutions are correlated. We further investigate if this correlation is stronger depending on which type of institution you examine, where research argues that the correlation to social trust should be stronger for operational institutions than for representative. We obtain highly significant results that support the first hypothesis but not the second one. It thus indicates that there exists a positive relationship between these two types of trust, but it does not signify that it should be stronger for the operational institutions than for the representative. These findings are important in an economic perspective as social trust has been described as the main ingredient to a successful economy, thus finding factors that may have an impact is necessary for maintaining and reinforcing the level of social trust in society.