Institutional Quality Causes Generalized Trust: Experimental Evidence on Trusting under the Shadow of Doubt

Generalized trust is essential for collective action, which at the heart of many societal problems. Institutional quality has been proposed as a driver generalized trust, but while correlation between two strong and robust, evidence on causal link scant. We show that this relationship causal. first experimentally expose individuals to institutions different quality, operationalized their ability prevent corrupt behavior. then measure using game. The results institutional drives effect generated by mere doubt behaviors might succeed, even without knowledge occurrence or success such behaviors. Cross-country comparisons with novel data support our results. Our contributions are experimental design modeling in laboratory settings.