THE COMPARISON OF GENERALIZED TRUST BETWEEN PLACE OF RESIDENCE: A CASE STUDY OF NORTH MACEDONIA

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Abstract
Generalized trust is a form of social capital that fosters cooperation among groups of people, thereby contributing to economic development. But is the level of generalized trust influenced by the place of residence? This paper explores the distribution of generalized trust between individuals with residence in the big city of Skopje and smaller towns and rural areas in North Macedonia. A multiple regression model is used to analyse the difference in generalized trust from a sample of 1.453 individuals based on cross-sectional data from the author’s research conducted from December 2023 to January 2024 in North Macedonia. Furthermore, the model includes control demographic variables and proxy measures for people’s social networks, personality traits, positive experiences, and quality of local government. Results support the paper’s thesis that generalized trust is higher among individuals living in the city of Skopje than among individuals living in smaller towns and rural areas. Furthermore, additional tests suggest that the difference in generalized trust is associated with the place of residence among people with similar education and income levels. These findings provide evidence for the exception to the thesis that in developing countries, generalized trust is lower in big urban areas in comparison with smaller places.

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