2025/02/10 by Yanjun Li, Hamza Umer · 2 voices
Social Sciences · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Corruption and Economic Development #Media Influence and Politics #Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/coep.12689
openalex publication_date 2025/02/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Abstract Trust in political institutions and their officials is crucial for implementing policies, enacting reforms, and facilitating collective action. This paper examines how corruption investigations influence trust in local cadres. Using data from China's anti‐corruption campaign, which increased corruption case disclosures, we find positive signals about checks and balances outweigh negative ones only when corruption cases are few. However, as investigations increase, trust diminishes due to heightened perceptions of corruption and lower evaluations of local governments, especially among those who lacked prior beliefs about local corruption levels before the campaign.