Project description
On the mutual influence of regulation and trust
Has the distrust in banks associated with the 2008 financial and economic crises actually led to stricter rules? And have these rules been able to restore the trust of policymakers and citizens alike? By addressing these questions through theoretical, methodological and empirical innovations, this Marie Skłodowska-Curie individual fellowship, through EU project REGTRUST, will offer key insights on the bidirectional relationship between trust and rules. Far from being confined to the financial sector, its broader conclusions will be relevant to many of the most salient contemporary public policies, ranging from the regulation of innovative medicines to the regulation of data protection.
Objective
Regulation and trust are at the heart of our society. In setting regulations to govern the behavior of citizens, firms and states, policymakers make regulatory design choices that are partly grounded in trust/distrust between them and key actors in the field at hand. Yet we know surprisingly little about the iterative processes whereby the nature of regulation and trust affect each other over time.
A truly interdisciplinary project bringing theoretical, methodological and empirical innovations, REGTRUST studies the bidirectional relation between the nature of regulation and levels of trust through a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. Focusing on the case of EU financial regulation during 2011-20, REGTRUST 1) maps the nature of EU financial regulation along two key dimensions (specificity-broadness; stability-revisability), 2) assesses statistically significant relations between such a nature and current and past levels of trust/distrust among key EU and national actors (policymakers, regulators, regulatees, consumers), and 3) traces causal mechanisms underpinning these statistically significant relations.
Expertise and facilities offered by the host (UA; Prof. Verhoest) and the secondment (FBF; Prof. Carletti), together with my existing experience and talent, mutually reinforce my development as independent researcher during the fellowship. In addition, advanced training (e.g. statistics, grant writing, science communication), two-way knowledge transfer and international and intersectoral mobility allow me realizing my long-term career goals after the fellowship. A customized dissemination and communication plan ensures that the project and its results are known well beyond the academic community, while also seeking active engagement with a wider audience (e.g. workshops, class experiments).
Altogether, REGTRUST at once bridges a major scientific gap, enhances my future career prospects, and makes a timely contribution to pressing societal debates.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
2000 Antwerpen
Belgium