One of the biggest obstacles to successful democratic and economic transition in post-communist societies is low levels of trust and weak institutions (Gibson 2001). Recent academic debate questions what policy response is most appropriate to ameliorate these problems. Specifically, some question the efficacy of building trust-relations by investing in civil society programs (Cook et al. 2005). This critique argues that strong government institutions, such as contract law, can substitute for low levels of trust. It is widely believed that low levels of trust are a major impediment in rural Bulgaria (Theesfeld 2005). Still, we know little about the precise levels of trust in the general population. Koford (2003) has found that Bulgarian students are actually more trusting than American students. Unfortunately students have little experience under communism and may not adequately reflect the general populations' trusting behavior. Rural Bulgarians, for example, seem reticent to engage in cooperative endeavors where trust is required (Theesfeld 2004; Hanisch 2003). These questions are examined by conducting 8 trust game experiments in the Bulgarian cities of Sofia and Plovdiv. Participants for these experiments will be recruited on a structured quota sample to encompass a wide age demographic. A baseline experiment of a trusting decision with a private donation will be followed by a treatment in which the trust decision is framed as a common property withdrawal. This research will significantly add to our understanding of trust in transition societies by (1) examining levels of trust among a broad demographic of Bulgarians in a theoretically and empirically rigorous manner and (2) testing the effects of experience under communism on levels of trust. The effects of other institutional settings will also be examined. This research will promote teaching, training, and learning by the inclusion and training of Bulgarian researchers and graduate students. They will help in recruitment and conducting of experiments and have shown a great enthusiasm for future collaborative efforts and the implementation of research results into their own future teaching. Underrepresented groups, specifically older and rural Bulgarians, absent from the past trust game experiments conducted by Koford (2003), will be recruited for these experiments. Results of this research will be presented at professional conferences and submitted to peer-reviewed journals. The research will also provide insight to the policymaking community in Bulgaria and other post-communist countries.
