Is trust a historical residue? Information flows and trust levels

In making cross-country social comparisons, 'trust' has usually been treate d as a culturally determined primitive. However, understanding the determin ants of trust would enhance our understanding of its effects on the nature of contracting and on organizational structure, Theories of economists and sociologists generally predict a positive relationship between trust and in formation flows. We examine some institutional determinants of trust, using data from the World Values Survey 1990-1993 and the International Telecomm unications Union Yearbook. Our finding that trust is increasing in the ease of two-way communication, particularly in urbanized economies, calls into question the extreme viewpoint that trust is purely a historical residue, ( C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.