Recently there has been a small surge in the economics literature addressing the role of trust in the economy. Experiments have shown that trust is extremely important for understanding economic processes. Trust does not fit very well with the traditional concept of “homo economicus”: Rational behavior is not trusting. The building and confirmation of trust usually requires sacrifices of resources, contradicting the utility and profit maximizing hypotheses of the homo economicus.
The Scientific American recently posted an article that looks at the evidence for trusting behavior from behavioral economics, in particular trust experiments and brain scan evidence from neuro-economic experiments.
I want to add my own two cents worth to this. First, trust building is directly related to the functioning of socio-economic networks. The better the functioning of these networks and the denser these networks, the better the development and building of trust. This in turn forms the foundation for a better functioning economy. (A neglected aspect in traditional neo-classical economics.)
On the other hand, network building is firmly founded on the presence of trust and behavioral norms of trusting behavior. The higher the level of trust in the society, the better one is able to build and maintain social networks.
This two-way street between trust building and network building lies at the foundation of my research on networks. It now seems that more and more evidence confirms the justification of these and similar theories of network formation. Here I also refer to the recent work of Markus Mobius and his co-authors.