Decoding the DNA of trust

Trust could be the core missing link in explaining Denmark’s high competitiveness. Many studies point to the Danes as one of the world’s most trusting people and, according to Gert Tinggaard Svendsen, a professor of political science at Aarhus University, around 25 percent of the Danish economy is generated by so-called social capital, in which trust plays a leading role. Trust makes it easy for the business community to develop ideas that are central for innovation, and every year society saves major sums in transaction costs because trust replaces written agreements and reduces the number of expensive legal cases.