Trust in Spanish Governments: Antecedents and Consequences

We used the Fiscal Observatory Survey of the University of Murcia (2007) to examine the antecedents of trust in the Spanish government (at city, regional and state levels). We found that the main drivers of trust are individuals' perception of the government's performance and the socio-economic environment in which they live. Regarding the consequences, we tested a variant of the rule compliance hypothesis: the higher the trust in the government, the higher the citizens' fiscal awareness, meaning individuals are more conscious of their fiscal obligations and more intransigent on fiscal fraud. Our results suggest that trust levels shape tax awareness, producing virtuous or vicious loops.