Economic Aspects of Trust in Politicians

This dissertation thesis comprises three original academic papers broadly related to the topic of trust in politicians. Each paper entails a specific goal, motivation, research method, and contribution. The dissertation supplements the papers with an introductory text that places them into the wider context of current economic theory and existing research. It also offers some concluding remarks which highlight the papers’ original contribution to the existing body of knowledge on trust in politicians. The papers included are: “An Empirically-Aligned Concept of Trust in Government” (2019) published in The NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy, “The EU Structural Funds and trust in politicians: another unwanted outcome?” (2022) in Empirica, and “Electoral Consequences of Individual Politicians’ Pledge Fulfilment” (2023) in Politická ekonomie. The dissertation contributes to our understanding of political trust as the papers included therein offer original findings that speak to the notion, determinants, and role of trust in the context of public finance and public choice.