In order to test the relationship between trust in public institutions, its main drivers and the impact of other contextual variables, the study carried out an analysis based on linear regressions. In all regressions, independent variables are normalised, meaning that the coefficients reported represent the change in the dependent variable as a result of one standard deviation increase in the explanatory variable. Results from linear regressions are presented for trust in government, the local government and the civil service.
The policy and contextual drivers of trust in government, the local government and the civil service are presented respectively in Table A B.1, Table A B.2 and Table A B.3. The three instances are regressed using the three broad categories presented in the conceptual framework: 1) interpersonal drivers; 2) policy drivers (i.e. competences and values); and 3) sustainability and perception of government actions in key societal trends. Each of the individual categories is first regressed on the dependent variable, first including the full set of variables, and in the following using a selection determined by a stepwise regression. In the final columns, all three categories are grouped together, and the significant variables are retained (using the same methodology). The full models, marked in bold, have the higher explanatory power and are those retained for subsequent policy analysis (see Chapters 2-4). Only a subset of questions, including questions on the trust drivers and long-term sustainability and key societal trends are asked to the whole sample of the Norwegians Citizens Survey. However, generally the survey is divided with some questions on the state level only asked to half of the sample and some questions about the municipal level asked to the other half of the sample. Accordingly, the regressions for central and local government consider the relevant questions for those levels as control variables.