Revisiting corruption and social trust: an epidemiological approach

Abstract: This paper empirically examines how corruption in the country of origin of second-generation immigrants residing in Europe affects their social trust. The paper follows an epidemiological approach using corruption as a proxy for culture and several time-fixed effects regressions to identify how differences in corruption can explain discrepancies in social trust. Data on social trust of second-generation immigrants in Europe is gathered from the European Social Survey. Testing the hypothesis that higher corruption in the country of origin will lead to lower social trust, we find that it is significant at the 1% level when both the respondent's parents are immigrants. When adding a set of socioeconomic control variables (and other control variables), we find that the relationship remains positive and significant. The same evidence is not found when only one parent is an immigrant, indicating that the cultural transmission of social trust is not strong enough in that scenario. While previous research has looked at potential drivers of social trust, and the relationship between corruption and social trust, no research has studied how corruption in the country of origin of a second-generation immigrant affects their social trust.