Does enforcement style influence citizen trust in regulatory agencies? An experiment in six countries
Stephan Grimmelikhuijsen,
Marija Aleksovska,
Judith van Erp,
Sharon Gilad,
Libby Maman,
Tobias Bach,
Moritz Kappler,
Wouter Van Dooren,
Rahel M. Schomaker,
Heidi Houlberg Salomonsen
January, 2025
Abstract
The study finds that regulatory enforcement styles have minimal impact on citizen trust, with only slight positive effects for strict and punitive approaches. Trust effects vary by country and domain, challenging the assumption that heavy-handed enforcement builds public trust.
Publication
In Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory