Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics
Working Paper Series,
Research Institute of Industrial Economics
No 1455: Nonresponse Bias in Trust Surveys
Andreas Bergh (), Christian Bjørnskov () and Richard Öhrvall ()
Additional contact information
Andreas Bergh: Department of Economics, Lund University, Postal: and Research Institute of Industrial Economics, Box 55665, SE-102 15 Stockholm, Sweden
Christian Bjørnskov: Aarhus University, Denmark, Postal: and Research Institute of Industrial Economics, Box 55665, SE-102 15 Stockholm, Sweden
Richard Öhrvall: Center for Local Government Studies, Linköping university, Postal: and Research Institute of Industrial Economics, Box 55665, SE-102 15 Stockholm, Sweden
Abstract: Social trust is typically measured using surveys that ask people if they agree that most people can be trusted. A potential problem is that falling response rates plague these surveys. If non-responses are systematic, comparisons of social trust over time will be biased. We examine social and legal trust among non-respondents by conducting a classroom survey where the first part included questions on social and institutional trust and is answered during class, whereas a second part of the survey is handed in by respondents later. Surveys from 300 Danish and Swedish university students suggest that, if anything, social trust among survey responders are somewhat lower than among non-responders. Using two waves of the Swedish National Election Study, we also show that conditional on education; social trust is uncorrelated to dropping out of the panel survey.
Keywords: Social trust; Legal trust; Survey data; Nonresponse bias
Language: English
24 pages, February 23, 2023
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