Institutional trust in national governments during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Using the Life with Corona survey, we construct an international database and explore government trust and possible determinants during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021). Trust is key for compliance with sanitary measures and, therefore, crucial to public policy in times of crisis. Although there was a widespread decline in government trust during the pandemic, our findings point in the direction that, for a better empirical understanding of the effect of the pandemic on institutional trust, the identification of relevant covariates calls for country-specific analysis. There is little room for across-the-board conclusions on individual characteristics that can be associated with the fall in trust during pandemic times.