AbstractCountries where interpersonal trust is high have, on average, high gross domestic product (GDP) percapita. Does this mean that economic growth is associated to growing trust over time? We review theliterature addressing this question, and provide updated empirical evidence on the effects ofeconomic growth on trust over time. Trust is a well-established measure of social capital, widelyconsidered in economic studies. We use country panel data from the Penn World Tables andinformation on people trusting others from the Survey Data Recycling (SDR) v.2.0 database, the largestsource of data on trust currently available. Results confirm the positive cross-sectional relation foundin previous studies. However, over time trust decreases when GDP grows. A number of robustnesschecks and a test of causality support this conclusion. The relationship between economic growth andtrust over time is negative when inequality is higher than the country’s average level of inequality.This is possible because growing income inequality increases the chances for social comparisons,which substitute trust in individuals’ utility functions. Additionally, income inequality hamperscooperation and cohesiveness in favour of competition, and increases the probability of social unrest.