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Release Date 10.11.2025

 INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES

 

 

Kazun Anton

PhD (Sociology), Director of the Institute for Industrial and Market Studies, Assistant Professor at the Department of Applied Economics

HSE University (Moscow), This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0091-5388

 

BOTH TRUST AND LAW: HOW SOCIAL CAPITAL AND FORMAL INSTITUTIONS INFLUENCE COMPLIANCE WITH COVID RESTRICTIONS

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This article analyzes the interaction between social capital and formal institutions in the context of compliance with restrictive measures during the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia. Developing a theoretical framework based on concepts of social capital and institutional economics, the study tests hypotheses regarding the substitution or complementarity of these mechanisms. Drawing on data from the online survey "RoCIRR 2" (more than 10,000 respondents from 61 regions of Russia in 2024), it examines the influence of generalized interpersonal trust and subjective assessments of the quality of public services (healthcare, police, courts) on the population's degree of intolerance to violations of the self-isolation regime. Hypotheses are formulated about the positive effect of institutional quality  and trust, as well as their interaction as substitution or mutual reinforcement. OLS models with fixed regional effects and controls show that trust has no independent effect but enhances the influence of institutional quality, confirming complementarity. The results contribute to understanding the role of informal norms under conditions of moderately developed formal institutions, which are characteristic of Russia. The conclusions have implications for policies aimed at increasing the population's readiness to follow government directives in crises, emphasizing the need to strengthen both trust and formal institutions.

 

Keywords: social capital, formal institutions, trust, COVID-19, norm compliance

 

JEL: Z13, I12, O17, P37

UDC: 334.01

DOI: 10.52342/2587-7666VTE_2025_4_133_143

 

© A. Kazun

© Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences «Issues of Theoretical Economics», 2025

Source of funding: The study was conducted within the framework of the HSE Fundamental Research Program.

 

JEL: B2, B24, A2

UDC: 330.85

DOI: 10.52342/2587-7666VTE_2025_4_117_132

 

© O. Borokh, 2025

© Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences «Issues of Theoretical Economics», 2025

 

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Manuscript submission date  30.07.2025

Manuscript acceptance date: 27.09.2025

 

For citation:

Kazun A. Both Trust and Law: How Social Capital and Formal Institutions Influence  Compliance with COVID Restrictions  // Voprosy teoreticheskoy ekonomiki. 2025. No. 4. Pp. 133-143. DOI:10.52342/2587-7666VTE_2025_4_133_143