Trust in Large Organizations

Abstract

Several authors suggest that trust is an important determinant of cooperation between strangers in a society, and therefore of performance of social institutions. We argue that trust should be particularly important for the performance of large organizations. In a cross-section of countries, evidence on government performance, participation in civic and professional societies, importance of large firms, and the performance of social institution more generally supports this hypothesis. Moreover, trust is lower in countries with dominant hierarchical religions, which may have deterred "horizontal networks of cooperation" between people. In sum, theories of trust hold up remarkable well on a cross-section of countries.