Trade, social values, and the generalized trust

The present paper investigates, empirically, whether global economic integration can lead to national social disintegration, as proclaimed by Rodrik. One can perhaps conjecture that a drop in the generalized trust in a country may signal a rise in social disintegration. Using the survey data on the generalized trust provided by the World Values Surveys, the present paper finds that, in general, there is a positive openness-trust relationship. However, when globalization undermines domestic income distribution, it will weaken this openness-trust relationship. There is also evidence of a threshold inequality above which the openness-trust relationship turns negative.