Trust in Political Institutions and inequality: Evidence from 15 European countries

The aim of this paper is to investigate whether the increase in income inequality contributed to the decline of citizens’ trust national political institutions in European Union. Using Eurobarometer data for fifteen European countries from 2001 to 2014, econometric analysis show three main results: a) the growth of income inequality negatively affected citizens’ trust in national government; b) the impact of income inequality on trust became stronger in the crisis period; c) the increase in income inequality contributed to the reduction of political trust mainly in the PIIGS countries. The results are robust also after having controlled for a set of economic and financial variables.