BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) researchers Dina Tasneem, Semab Rahman, and Mehnaz Rabbani recently presented their work on trust and citizen engagement in social accountability mechanisms and underlying gender differences at two international conferences:
The paper titled Are Women Less Trusting or Less Empowered? was presented at IAFFE 2021, an annual conference organized by the International Association of Feminist Economists. The paper explores the issue of gender differences in generalized trust and particularized trust using survey data from Bangladesh. Some of the existing literature suggests women are less trusting than men, while others find no such difference. The findings from this paper suggest that gender differences in trust is context-dependent and mostly a reflection of other underlying gender disparities. Women tend to be significantly less trusting only in the case of particularized trust, for example, trust in community, neighbors, or personal acquaintances. There is no difference between men and women in terms of their attitude when it comes to trusting people in general or trusting strangers.
The paper titled Trust and Citizen Participation in Community-Based Monitoring System: An Experimental Evidence from Bangladesh was presented at the Economic Science Association 2021 Global Around-the-Clock Virtual Conference Program. The paper explores the relationship between trust and citizen engagement in social accountability mechanisms by utilizing the unique setting of a public procurement project in Bangladesh. In this model of civic engagement, in each project site, a citizen-monitoring group is formed to oversee the quality of implementation and and to report irregularities to the authorities. The paper investigates whether the level of trust in the community affects the performance of their citizen-monitoring group and/or the interactions resulting from the participation in the monitoring task affects the level of trust of the monitoring group members. Trust is measured using both a simplified trust game and a survey. The findings are inconclusive to the question of whether the trust level in the community affects the performance of the citizen-monitoring group. While no such indication is found from the trust games, the data on generalized trust from the survey show a positive effect of trust on monitoring group activity.
BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) researchers Dina Tasneem, Semab Rahman, and Mehnaz Rabbani recently presented their work on trust and citizen engagement in social accountability mechanisms and underlying gender differences at two international conferences:
The paper titled Are Women Less Trusting or Less Empowered? was presented at IAFFE 2021, an annual conference organized by the International Association of Feminist Economists. The paper explores the issue of gender differences in generalized trust and particularized trust using survey data from Bangladesh. Some of the existing literature suggests women are less trusting than men, while others find no such difference. The findings from this paper suggest that gender differences in trust is context-dependent and mostly a reflection of other underlying gender disparities. Women tend to be significantly less trusting only in the case of particularized trust, for example, trust in community, neighbors, or personal acquaintances. There is no difference between men and women in terms of their attitude when it comes to trusting people in general or trusting strangers.
The paper titled Trust and Citizen Participation in Community-Based Monitoring System: An Experimental Evidence from Bangladesh was presented at the Economic Science Association 2021 Global Around-the-Clock Virtual Conference Program. The paper explores the relationship between trust and citizen engagement in social accountability mechanisms by utilizing the unique setting of a public procurement project in Bangladesh. In this model of civic engagement, in each project site, a citizen-monitoring group is formed to oversee the quality of implementation and and to report irregularities to the authorities. The paper investigates whether the level of trust in the community affects the performance of their citizen-monitoring group and/or the interactions resulting from the participation in the monitoring task affects the level of trust of the monitoring group members. Trust is measured using both a simplified trust game and a survey. The findings are inconclusive to the question of whether the trust level in the community affects the performance of the citizen-monitoring group. While no such indication is found from the trust games, the data on generalized trust from the survey show a positive effect of trust on monitoring group activity.
