Although it is well known that trust and trustworthiness (ie, the fulfillment of trust) are
important behaviors for the fulfillment of incomplete contracts, less is known about how the
economic environment influences them. In this paper we design an experiment to examine
how exogenously determined (stochastic) past relationship lengths affect trust and
trustworthiness in new relationships. We find that shorter-lasting relationships have an
immediate negative impact on both behaviors in the relationships that immediately follow …