Svenskt stöd för Putnam

Robert D Putnams tes, som jag skrev om häromdagen, att mångetniska samhällen resulterar i att medborgarna har lägre förtroende för varandra får stöd i svensk ekonomisk forskning.

Henrik Jordahl och Magnus Gustavsson publicerade i höstas ett working paper, Inequality and Trust in Sweden: Some Inequalities are More Harmful than Others (pdf), där de konstaterade att andelen utlänningar i ett samhälle påverkar graden av tillit.

Abstract:

We present new evidence on the influence of income inequality on generalized trust. Using individual panel data from Swedish counties together with an instrumental variable strategy, we find that differences in disposable income, and especially differences among people in the bottom half of the income distribution, are associated with lower trust. The relationship between income inequality and trust is particularly strong for people with a strong aversion against income differentials. We also find that the proportion of people born in a foreign country is negatively associated with trust.