23.06.2016 - 03:57

Sonja Opper at the Advanced School

We invite you to join us for Sonja Opper's talk on "Relational Exchange and Generalized Trust in China". Date: June 23, 2016, 17h. Venue: IN-EAST School, Geibelstraße 41, Room SG183

Abstract
Where does generalized trust, that is, the inclination to place trust in strangers, come from? Our claim is that in economic action sources of generalized trust may not differ much from the sources of personalized trust. Contrary to a common assumption of a sharp distinction between personalized and generalized trust, we assert a likely spillover effect from relational exchange to a person’s expectations in interacting with an anonymous other. Our research integrates behavioral trust measures elicited by a novel incentivized game with survey data using a random sample of 540 founders of private industrial firms in the Yangzi delta region of China. We show that economic actors with more experience in relational exchange display greater trust in strangers. Likewise, we find robust evidence of a positive association between beliefs in the effectiveness of community business norms and generalized trust.

CV
The research of Sonja Opper focuses on the application of New Institutional Economics on transition and developing countries with a specific focus on China. She is particularly interested in the explanation of patterns of institutional change and the interplay between formal and informal institutions. Her research and teaching interests are New Institutional Economics, Institutional Change, Political Economy of Development, Organization and Management Theory and Entrepreneurship
http://www.sonja-opper.com/#/about