Panel Paper:
Applying Structural Equation Modeling to Analyze the Mutual Causality between Corruption and Trust in Public Institutions
Friday, April 12, 2019
Continuing Education Building - Room 2030 (University of California, Irvine)
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
Low trust in government appears to be a global phenomenon and a challenge to effective governance*. From empirical literature, trust is both related to cause and consequence of corruption. This article empirically explores the relationship linking trust and corruption in Brazil. Based on data from the 2017 Latino Barometer study, a survey of 1,200 citizens, corruption appears for the first time as the main concern for Brazil. Because the endogenous relationship between trust and corruption may violate the assumptions of ordinary least squares (OLS), simultaneous equations model (SEM), as utilized by Morris & Klesner (2010), are employed here. This study will analyze the mutual causality between perceptions of corruption and trust in public institutions and explores potential insights related to the challenges for the next elected Brazilian president, Jair Messias Bolsonaro.
* Diamond (2007), Gallup (2015) or Whiteley et al. (2015)
