https://doi.org/10.1177/1043463117701124 Rationality and Society 1–19 © The Author(s) 2017 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1043463117701124 journals.sagepub.com/home/rss Institutional trust and the provision of public goods: When do individual costs matter? The case of recycling Stephan Rompf University of Cologne, Germany Clemens Kroneberg University of Cologne, Germany Thomas Schlösser University of Cologne, Germany Abstract This research asks whether and how institutional trust—trust in the reliability, effectiveness, and legitimacy of public institutions—promotes the provision of public goods. To understand the underlying mechanisms, we apply three choice models to the example of recycling behavior: a standard rational choice model, the low-cost hypothesis, and a dual-process theory. The models carry competing hypotheses about the interplay of trust and incentives in recycling behavior. Using survey data collected in four countries (Sweden, Denmark, the United States, and the United Kingdom), we find a positive and significant interaction effect of institutional trust and recycling costs on self-reported recycling behavior. No such interaction was found using generalized social trust as a second measure of trust. Our results support a dual-process perspective and indicate that high levels of institutional trust Corresponding author: Clemens Kroneberg, Institute of Sociology and Social Psychology, University of Cologne, Greinstr. 2, Köln 50939, Germany. Email: c.kroneberg@uni-koeln.de Article 701124RSS 0 0 10.1177/1043463117701124Rationality and SocietyRompf et al. research-article 2017