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Rev Int Org (2008) 3:6593
DOI 10.1007/s11558-007-9022-1
Received: 16 May 2006 /Revised: 9 February 2007 /Accepted: 17 March 2007 / Published online: 17 May 2007# Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2007
Abstract The literature on social capital has strongly increased in the last two decades, but there still is a lack of substantial empirical evidence about the determinants of international trust. This empirical study analyzes a cross-section of individuals, using micro-data from the World Values Survey, covering 38 countries, to investigate trust in international organizations, specifically in the United Nations. In line with previous studies on international trust we find that political trust matters. We also find that social trust is relevant, but contrary to previous studies the results are less robust. Moreover, the paper goes beyond previous studies investigating also the impact of geographic identification, corruption and globalization. We find that a higher level of (perceived) corruption reduces the trust in the UN in developed countries, but increases trust in developing and transition countries. A stronger identification with the world as a whole also leads to a higher trust in the UN and a stronger capacity to act globally in economic and political environment increases trust in the UN.
Keywords International organizations . United Nations . International trust . Political trust . Social trust . Corruption . Globalization
JEL Codes Z130 . D730 . O190
B. Torgler
School of Economics and Finance, Queensland University of Technology, GPO Box 2434, Brisbane, QLD 4001, Australia
B. Torgler (*)
CREMACenter for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts, Basel, Switzerland e-mail: [email protected]
Trust in international organizations: Anempirical investigation focusing on the United Nations
Benno Torgler
66 B. Torgler
1 Introduction
Social capital has been studied by many different disciplines. It has advanced to an important concept in social sciences, enforcing the interdisciplinary discourse between researchers and policy makers and non-academic institutions such as the World Bank with its Social Capital Initiative on the other hand. Moreover it also encouraged the discussion within the single disciplines (see Woolcock 1998). Many authors have singled out social capital as an important feature of productive social relationships (Gambetta 1988; Hardin 1993) and effective governance facilitating also coordinated actions and the willingness to comply (see, e.g., Putnam 1993; Alesina and La...