TY  - JOUR
AU  - Stevenson,Betsey
AU  - Wolfers,Justin
TI  - Trust in Public Institutions over the Business Cycle
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 16891
PY  - 2011
Y2  - March 2011
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w16891
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w16891.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Betsey Stevenson
University of Michigan
Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
5224 Weill Hall
735 South State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-3091
E-Mail: betseys@umich.edu

Justin Wolfers
Department of Economics
University of Michigan
611 Tappan St
Lorch Hall #319
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
Tel: 734-764-2447
E-Mail: jwolfers@umich.edu
AB  - We document that trust in public institutions—and particularly trust in banks, business and government—has declined over recent years.  U.S. time series evidence suggests that this partly reflects the pro-cyclical nature of trust in institutions.  Cross-country comparisons reveal a clear legacy of the Great Recession, and those countries whose unemployment grew the most suffered the biggest loss in confidence in institutions, particularly in trust in government and the financial sector.  Finally, analysis of several repeated cross-sections of confidence within U.S. states yields similar qualitative patterns, but much smaller magnitudes in response to state-specific shocks.
ER  -