Introduction

An important part of the current discussion on the relationship between culture and economic development is embodied in the concept of social capital, of which trust is seen as one of its most important dimensions (Fukuyama 1995; Zak and Knack 2001; François 2002; Uslaner 2002). This is reflected in the definition of social capital. It relates to the willingness of citizens to trust others, including members of their family, fellow citizens and people in general (Whiteley 2000: 450). Social capital is the study of network-based processes that generate beneficial outcomes through norms of trust (Durlauf and Fafchamps 2004). The importance of social capital and trust for the debate on culture and economic development is not to be underestimated. According to Guiso et al. (2006: 29), the opening through which culture entered the economic discourse was the concept of trust. This was reflected in two consecutive presidential lectures at the yearly meeting of the European Economic Association by Tabellini (2007a) and Fehr (2008). Using the culture label, they both discussed the importance of trust for economic interaction. Trust was also a topic in the 2009 presidential lecture at the American Economic Association by Dixit (2009), which dealt with formal and informal governance institutions. Given this interest in trust and the perception of many economists that trust proxies for culture, we devote this chapter to it.