Economics Seminar Series 2026/2027

Speaker: Giuseppe Sorrenti

Title: From Parents to Citizens: The Intergenerational Transmission of Institutional Trust

Abstract: 

Trust in public institutions is essential for effective governance, yet little is known about how it is transmitted across generations. Using rich survey data from Italian households, in which each family member independently reports on various aspects of daily life, we examine the intergenerational transmission of institutional trust between parents and their teenage and young adult children. We document a strong association between parents’ average institutional trust and that of their children. When parents differ in their levels of trust, children tend to align more closely with their mothers, regardless of whether the mother is the more or less trusting parent. This pattern is particularly pronounced among daughters. To investigate whether this relationship is causal, we exploit the 2021 rollout of pagoPA, which transformed the way Italians make payments to public administrations. Our instrumental-variable strategy combines the timing of the reform with pre-reform differences in mothers’ and fathers’ interactions with post offices. The resulting estimates provide evidence that changes in parents’ institutional trust causally affect their children’s trust.