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Social Exchange and Generalized Trust in China

Opper, Sonja LU ; Holm, Jerker LU and Nee, Victor (2014) In Working Paper / Department of Economics, School of Economics and Management, Lund University
Abstract
This paper examines how social relations and norms contribute to the emergence of generalized trust in economic action. Our core proposition is that the more positive the local social exchange relationship, the greater an actor’s propensity to place trust in strangers. Our research design integrates behavioral measures elicited by incentivized experimental trust games with survey data using a random sample of 540 founding CEOs of manufacturing firms in the Yangzi delta region of China. Our analysis shows that characteristics of repeated social exchange—depth, prosociality and control—are positively associated with an economic actor’s proclivity for generalized trust. Founder CEOs with deeper and more valued exchange relations are more... (More)
This paper examines how social relations and norms contribute to the emergence of generalized trust in economic action. Our core proposition is that the more positive the local social exchange relationship, the greater an actor’s propensity to place trust in strangers. Our research design integrates behavioral measures elicited by incentivized experimental trust games with survey data using a random sample of 540 founding CEOs of manufacturing firms in the Yangzi delta region of China. Our analysis shows that characteristics of repeated social exchange—depth, prosociality and control—are positively associated with an economic actor’s proclivity for generalized trust. Founder CEOs with deeper and more valued exchange relations are more likely to trust strangers. Likewise, we find robust evidence of a positive association between beliefs in the effectiveness of community social control and trust in strangers. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Working paper/Preprint
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Generalized Trust, Networks, Social Exchange, Norms, CEOs
in
Working Paper / Department of Economics, School of Economics and Management, Lund University
issue
30
publisher
Department of Economics, Lund University
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
a5f56dfb-1c28-4c0e-8bfb-29250dd9bcc7 (old id 4616662)
alternative location
http://swopec.hhs.se/lunewp/abs/lunewp2014_030.htm
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 12:13:00
date last changed
2018-11-21 21:09:41
@misc{a5f56dfb-1c28-4c0e-8bfb-29250dd9bcc7,
  abstract     = {{This paper examines how social relations and norms contribute to the emergence of generalized trust in economic action. Our core proposition is that the more positive the local social exchange relationship, the greater an actor’s propensity to place trust in strangers. Our research design integrates behavioral measures elicited by incentivized experimental trust games with survey data using a random sample of 540 founding CEOs of manufacturing firms in the Yangzi delta region of China. Our analysis shows that characteristics of repeated social exchange—depth, prosociality and control—are positively associated with an economic actor’s proclivity for generalized trust. Founder CEOs with deeper and more valued exchange relations are more likely to trust strangers. Likewise, we find robust evidence of a positive association between beliefs in the effectiveness of community social control and trust in strangers.}},
  author       = {{Opper, Sonja and Holm, Jerker and Nee, Victor}},
  keywords     = {{Generalized Trust; Networks; Social Exchange; Norms; CEOs}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Working Paper}},
  number       = {{30}},
  publisher    = {{Department of Economics, Lund University}},
  series       = {{Working Paper / Department of Economics, School of Economics and Management, Lund University}},
  title        = {{Social Exchange and Generalized Trust in China}},
  url          = {{http://swopec.hhs.se/lunewp/abs/lunewp2014_030.htm}},
  year         = {{2014}},
}