Distrust and Political Turnover during Economic Crises / Nathan Nunn, Nancy Qian, Jaya Wen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nunn, Nathan.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Qian, Nancy.

Wen, Jaya.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w24187.

NBER working paper series no. w24187

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2018.

Summary:

We use a six-decade long annual country-level panel dataset to document that recessions are more likely to cause political turnover in countries with lower levels of generalized trust. The effect is only present in democracies (not autocracies), for turnovers occurring through regular procedures (not coups), and during scheduled election years. We find similar effects for vote shares in national elections across sub-national regions within Europe and across counties within the United States. Furthermore, countries with higher trust experience more rapid recoveries from recessions. The results show that trust is an important determinant of political stability during recessions.

Notes:

Print version record

January 2018.