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TRUST
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TRUST
The Key to Social Cohesion and Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean

Edited by

  • Philip Keefer
  • Carlos Scartascini
Executive summary
Highlights
  • Trust is a tremendous opportunity for countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. By making trust a goal of public policy, and not simply its byproduct, countries can accelerate growth and employment. Decisions to invest, employ, produce, buy, or sell all depend on trust. The most productive, skilled, and innovative individuals have greater economic opportunities in high-trust societies. Greater trust will unleash growth.
  • Mistrust in the private sector is an obstacle to inclusive growth. It is well known that the business sector tends to distrust governments, and this hurts investment and productivity. A survey of thousands of export-oriented firms in the region reveals that distrust within firms is also an obstacle to investment and innovation.
  • Mistrust in the public sector is an obstacle to inclusive growth. Trust in governments is low in the region. Our study finds that the lack of trust makes it difficult for citizens to demand better public policies and services. A survey of thousands of public officials revealed that mistrust within public agencies, and their mistrust of citizens, reduces public sector capacity to serve citizen needs, including a regulatory environment conducive to growth and investment.
  • Restoring trust depends on information and empowerment. Citizens do not trust government when they are uninformed about what government is doing for them, and when they have little capacity to act together to hold government accountable. Firms do not trust each other when they can do little about opportunistic behavior. Governments can inform and empower, and the IDB is helping them do this: strengthening education and regulatory institutions; reducing barriers to entry for productive workers and firms; and, at a broader level, encouraging governments to make promises, fulfill promises, and communicate both to citizens.
A Conversation on Trust and Presentation of the Flagship Reportin Latin America and the Caribbean?

How can we build trust in Latin America and the Caribbean?

Why did we write a book on trust

Why trust is essential for more innovation

Why trust matters for climate change

How can we restore trust in governments

Trust: An Obstacle and an Opportunity for Digital Transformation
Trust: An Obstacle and an Opportunity for Digital Transformation

Ideas Matter - Benjamin Roseth

Employing Information to Boost Citizen Trust and Welfare
Employing Information to Boost Citizen Trust and Welfare

Ideas Matter - Phil Keefer - Carlos Scartascini

When the Lack of Trust Cripples Productivity and Growth
When the Lack of Trust Cripples Productivity and Growth

Ideas Matter - Phil Keefer - Carlos Scartascini

Building Trust for Social Cohesion and Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean
Building Trust for Social Cohesion and Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean

Ideas Matter - Phil Keefer - Carlos Scartascini

Trust: A Critical Component of the Fight Against Air Pollution
Trust: A Critical Component of the Fight Against Air Pollution

Ideas Matter - Bridget Hoffmann - Carlos Scartascini

Is Social Media Remaking Latin American Elections?
Is Social Media Remaking Latin American Elections?

Ideas Matter - Razvan Vlaicu

Testing the Impact of Social Media on Trust
Testing the Impact of Social Media on Trust

Ideas Matter - Carlos Scartascini

What the Pandemic Revealed about the Role of Trust in Public Sector Performance
What the Pandemic Revealed about the Role of Trust in Public Sector Performance

Ideas Matter - Razvan Vlaicu

To Fight Crime, Increase Trust
To Fight Crime, Increase Trust

Ideas Matter - Santiago Pérez-Vincent - Carlos Scartascini

How Perceptions of Inequality Affect Trust in Latin America and the Caribbean
How Perceptions of Inequality Affect Trust in Latin America and the Caribbean

Ideas Matter - Carlos Scartascini - Joanna Valle

Science Meets Policy in the Pandemic Response
Science Meets Policy in the Pandemic Response

Ideas Matter - Razvan Vlaicu

COVID-19: Containment Measures and Trust
COVID-19: Containment Measures and Trust

Ideas Matter - Agustina Schijman - Carolina Correa Caro - Diego Vera-Cossio

The Elusive Quest for Growth: The Role of Trust
The Elusive Quest for Growth: The Role of Trust

Ideas Matter - Carlos Scartascini - Joanna Valle

Institutional Capacity and Trust: The Ingredients for Fewer Restrictions during the Pandemic
Institutional Capacity and Trust: The Ingredients for Fewer Restrictions during the Pandemic

Ideas Matter - Gastón Gertner - Carlos Scartascini

Events
Jan 13 2022
How can we Build Trust in Latin America and The Caribbean?
Washington, D.C.

More details here

Trust is the most pressing and yet least discussed problem confronting Latin America and the Caribbean. Whether in others, in government, or in firms, trust is lower in the region than anywhere else in the world. The economic and political consequences of mistrust ripple through society. It suppresses growth and innovation: investment, entrepreneurship, and employment all flourish when firms and government, workers and employers, banks and borrowers, and consumers and producers trust each other. Trust inside private and public sector organizations is essential for collaboration and innovation. Mistrust distorts democratic decision-making. It keeps citizens from demanding better public services and infrastructure, from joining with others to control corruption, and from making the collective sacrifices that leave everyone better off. The good news is that governments can increase citizen trust with clearer promises of what citizens can expect from them, public sector reforms that enable them to keep their promises, and institutional reforms that strengthen the commitments that citizens make to each other. This book guides decision-makers as they incorporate trust and social cohesion into the comprehensive reforms needed to address the regions most pernicious challenges.

Edited by:
Date:
373 pages
Topics:
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  • English pdf ( Downloads)
  • Español pdf ( Downloads)
  • English epub ( Downloads)
  • Español epub ( Downloads)
DOI
  • http://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0003792
Executive summary
  • English pdf ( Downloads)
  • Español pdf ( Downloads)
  • Português pdf ( Downloads)
  • French pdf ( Downloads)

Related Research

 
Previous editions
From Structures to Services

2020

From Structures to Services

To close its infrastructure gap, Latin America and the Caribbean needs more than investment in new structures. It needs to become more efficient at investing in infrastructure and regulating a new range of services that have the potential to disrupt the energy, transport, and water sectors. The technological revolution makes a future with quality services possible, but not inevitable.

Trading Promises for Results

2019

Trading Promises for Results

Thirty years after the region embarked on large-scale liberalization, trade policy could have been expected to become all but irrelevant. Instead, a mismatch between expectations and what could realistically be delivered set the stage for much of the disappointment, skepticism, and fatigue regarding trade policy in the region, particularly in the early 2000s. By setting the bar unrealistically high, governments and analysts made trade policies an easy target for special interests that were hurt by liberalization and for those ideologically opposed to free trade.

Better Spending for Better Lives

2018

Better Spending for Better Lives

How can the puzzle of larger demands and fiscal strengthening be solved? This edition of the Development in the Americas (DIA) report focuses precisely on this question. The book suggests that the answer is about fiscal efficiency and smart spending rather than the standard solution of across-the-board spending cuts to achieve fiscal sustainability— sometimes at great cost for society. It is about doing more with less.

Learning Better

2017

Learning Better: Public policy skills development

Despite governments’ best efforts, many people in Latin America and the Caribbean don’t have the skills they need to thrive. This book looks at what policies work, and don’t work, so that governments can help people learn better and realize their potential throughout their lifetimes.

Saving for development

2016

Saving for development: How Latin America and the Caribbean Can Save More and Better

Why should people—and economies—save? The typical answer usually focuses on the need to protect against future shocks, to smooth consumption during hard times, in short, to save for the proverbial rainy day. This book approaches the question from a slightly different angle.

Early years

2015

The Early Years: Child Well-being and the Role of Public Policy

Child well-being matters for both ethical and economic reasons as children who flourish in the early years are more likely to become healthy, productive citizens later in life.

rethinking

2014

Rethinking Productive Development: Sound Policies and Institutions for Economic Transformation

Anemic economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean is in need of a post-Washington-Consensus policy shot in the arm. Unfortunately, the ghost of industrial policy casts a shadow over all efforts because it has often done more harm than good.

more than revenue

2013

More than Revenue: Taxation as a Development Tool

More than Revenue aims to provide an up-to-date overview of the current state of taxation in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region, its main reform needs, and possible reform strategies that take into account the likely economic, institutional, and political constraints on the reform process.

development

2012

Room for Development: Housing Markets in Latin America and the Caribbean

This edition of the IDB's flagship publication, Development in the Americas, takes an in-depth look at the opportunities countries have to improve urban housing markets and pave the way for solutions that involve the private sector.

connections

2011

Development Connections:Unveiling the Impact of New Information Technologies

Policymakers and academics agree that computers, the Internet, mobile telephones and other information and communication technologies can be beneficial for economic and social development. But how strong is the impact?

productivity

2010

The Age of Productivity: Transforming Economiesfrom the Bottom Up

The book provides tools to ponder productivity growth beyond conventional aggregate analysis, focusing on the extreme heterogeneity of sectors and firms while emphasizing the importance of policies that allow high productivity firms to thrive and expand.

Beyond Facts

2009

Beyond Facts: Understanding Quality of Life

Using an enhanced version of the recently created Gallup World Poll, the Inter-American Development Bank surveyed people from throughout the region and found that perceptions of quality of life are often very different from the reality.

Meet the editors:
Philip Keefer

Philip Keefer

Philip Keefer, a citizen of the United States, is the principal economic advisor in the Institutions for Development Sector of the Inter-American Development Bank. He holds a PhD in Economics from Washington University in St. Louis.

Carlos Scartascini

Carlos Scartascini

Carlos Scartascini, a citizen of Argentina, holds a PhD in Economics from George Mason University. He is head of the Development Research Group and leader of the IDB Behavioral Economics Group in the Research Department of the Inter-American Development Bank.