Trust and Trustworthiness Among Europeans: South-North Comparison

37 Pages Posted: 3 Jun 2004

See all articles by Fabian Bornhorst

Fabian Bornhorst

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Andrea Ichino

University of Bologna

Karl H. Schlag

University of Vienna - Department of Economics

Eyal Winter

Hebrew University of Jerusalem - Department of Economics

Date Written: May 2004

Abstract

This Paper discovers significant differences between southern and northern Europeans in a dynamic version of the 'trust game' played by Ph.D. students from different nationalities at the European University Institute. Our version of the trust game allows subjects to choose the receivers to whom they make transfers. Southerners are discriminated against, particularly in terms of contacts and mainly by northern subjects. Strikingly, this discrimination builds up rather than dying out with experience. More than for not being trustworthy (i.e., having a low propensity to reciprocate by making a generous payback for a transfer received), Southerners are being punished for their own low level of trust (i.e., having a low propensity to contact another player with a generous transfer), and for this reason end up leaving the game with lower pay-offs.

Keywords: Trust, trustworthiness, European regions, experiments

JEL Classification: C70

Suggested Citation

Bornhorst, Fabian and Ichino, Andrea and Schlag, Karl H. and Winter, Eyal, Trust and Trustworthiness Among Europeans: South-North Comparison (May 2004). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=549282

Fabian Bornhorst

International Monetary Fund (IMF) ( email )

700 19th Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20431
United States

Andrea Ichino (Contact Author)

University of Bologna ( email )

Piazza Scaravilli 1
40126 Bologna, fc 47100
Italy
+39 349 5965919 (Phone)

Karl H. Schlag

University of Vienna - Department of Economics ( email )

Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1
Vienna, A-1090
Austria

Eyal Winter

Hebrew University of Jerusalem - Department of Economics ( email )

Mount Scopus
Jerusalem, 91905
Israel
+972 2 658 4154 (Phone)
+972 2 651 3681 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.ma.huji.ac.il/%7Emseyal/

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
25
Abstract Views
2,120
PlumX Metrics