Paper short abstract:

This paper seeks to explore if the trust in the government effects life evaluation of the citizens in the context of India. We have use an IV and Lewbel estimator to address issues on endogeneity. The results confirm the cumulative loss of trust in the govt and decline in satisfaction of citizens.

Paper long abstract:

Disillusionment with income as a measure of well-being has led to alternative measures that are

broader and focus on outcomes. Amartya Sen’s (1985) pioneering contribution focuses on capabilities

to live a healthy and rewarding life. Deaton (2008), among others, espouses a measure of well-being

called life evaluation/satisfaction that aggregates components of well-being, such as economic status,

health, family circumstances and even human and political rights. We have used Deaton’s (2008)

measure of life evaluation. As there is no study of trust in the present Indian government/National

Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and life evaluation, our present

study aims to fill this gap, based on the Gallup World Poll Survey for India, covering the period 2018

2021. As trust in the NDA is endogenous, 2SLS and Lewbel IV estimators have been used. As the

2SLS estimates satisfy the relevance and exclusion conditions for the instruments, we rely on these

estimates. Our analysis confirms robustly that trust in the NDA determines life evaluation, controlling

for other covariates. As trust in the NDA decreased over the period analysed, so did life evaluation. If

the oppressive and brutal policies of the NDA in pursuit of a Hindu nation are not checked,

cumulative loss of trust in the NDA and life evaluation may jeopardise democracy.