Institutional quality, corruption, and impartiality: the role of process and outcome for citizen trust in public administration in 173 European regions

ABSTRACT We empirically study whether citizens´ trust in public administration is influenced by the outcomes delivered by public services or by due process (administrative impartiality or absence of corruption) from a regional perspective. The paper fits a multilevel model on a unique dataset (N= 129,773) with observations nested in 173 European regions, using data from a series of pooled Eurobarometer surveys and from the European Quality of Government Index. We find that both public service outcomes and processes have a significant impact on citizens´ trust in public administration, but that process, and in particular absence of corruption is the strongest institutional determinant.