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Social trust and sharing economy size : country level evidence from home sharing services

Bergh, Andreas LU and Funcke, Alexander (2020) In Applied Economics Letters 27(19). p.1592-1595
Abstract

The sharing economy (peer-to-peer based sharing or renting activities coordinated through community-based online services) is often said to be closely related to trust. This paper examines the association empirically. Using data collected from the two sharing economy companies Airbnb and Flipkey that exist in over 100 countries, we construct a measure of sharing economy penetration and examine its correlation with social trust and other potential explanations. Sharing economy penetration is promoted by ICT-infrastructure and economic openness. Conditional on ICT-infrastructure, countries with higher social trust have significantly lower sharing economy penetration. Our conclusion is that sharing economy services do not require high... (More)

The sharing economy (peer-to-peer based sharing or renting activities coordinated through community-based online services) is often said to be closely related to trust. This paper examines the association empirically. Using data collected from the two sharing economy companies Airbnb and Flipkey that exist in over 100 countries, we construct a measure of sharing economy penetration and examine its correlation with social trust and other potential explanations. Sharing economy penetration is promoted by ICT-infrastructure and economic openness. Conditional on ICT-infrastructure, countries with higher social trust have significantly lower sharing economy penetration. Our conclusion is that sharing economy services do not require high levels of social trust to succeed. Rather, they provide institutions that facilitate trust-intensive economic activities also where social trust is low.

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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
home sharing, internet, Sharing economy, social trust
in
Applied Economics Letters
volume
27
issue
19
pages
4 pages
publisher
Routledge
external identifiers
  • scopus:85077151847
ISSN
1350-4851
DOI
10.1080/13504851.2019.1701180
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
6e4f4328-efb7-4a3f-b667-64fa56e92f07
date added to LUP
2020-01-16 08:00:23
date last changed
2022-04-18 20:05:11
@article{6e4f4328-efb7-4a3f-b667-64fa56e92f07,
  abstract     = {{<p>The sharing economy (peer-to-peer based sharing or renting activities coordinated through community-based online services) is often said to be closely related to trust. This paper examines the association empirically. Using data collected from the two sharing economy companies Airbnb and Flipkey that exist in over 100 countries, we construct a measure of sharing economy penetration and examine its correlation with social trust and other potential explanations. Sharing economy penetration is promoted by ICT-infrastructure and economic openness. Conditional on ICT-infrastructure, countries with higher social trust have significantly lower sharing economy penetration. Our conclusion is that sharing economy services do not require high levels of social trust to succeed. Rather, they provide institutions that facilitate trust-intensive economic activities also where social trust is low.</p>}},
  author       = {{Bergh, Andreas and Funcke, Alexander}},
  issn         = {{1350-4851}},
  keywords     = {{home sharing; internet; Sharing economy; social trust}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{19}},
  pages        = {{1592--1595}},
  publisher    = {{Routledge}},
  series       = {{Applied Economics Letters}},
  title        = {{Social trust and sharing economy size : country level evidence from home sharing services}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2019.1701180}},
  doi          = {{10.1080/13504851.2019.1701180}},
  volume       = {{27}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}