How does political trust affect social trust? An analysis of survey data from rural China using an instrumental variables approach
Abstract
Using an instrumental variable approach, we analyze survey data to untangle the relationship between social and political trust in contemporary China. We find strong evidence that political trust enhances social trust in China and the results are robust to a range of measures, including the generalized social trust question, as well as three contextualized trust questions. We also shed light on the impact of economic modernization on social trust. Our findings contribute to the general literature on trust and provide a better understanding of the complicated relationship between political trust and social trust. They also offer insight into the dynamics of trust production and reproduction in China and thus into China’s socio-political development.
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Biographies
Ran Tao is a professor in the School of Economics and the director of China Center for Public Economics and Governance at Renmin University of China in Beijing. A specialist in the Chinese economy, he has published on the political economy of China’s economic transition, land and household registration reform in China’s urbanization, local governance and public finance in rural China.
Dali L. Yang is a Professor in the Department of Political Science and the founding Faculty Director of the University of Chicago Center in Beijing. His current research interests include the politics of China’s development, particularly regulation, governance, and state-society relations. Further information is available at www.daliyang.org.
Ming Li is a graduate student in economics at the Hanqing Advanced Institute of Finance and Economics, Renmin University of China.
Xi Lu is a doctoral student in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California at Berkeley.
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Article first published online: July 12, 2013
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