Trust, as economists have noted before, is a public good, a social lubricant which makes possible production and exchange (see for example Akerlof 1970; Arrow 1974). … The point is that if your trust in me increases it certainly benefits me. But if there are good reasons for this increase in trust it benefits you as well. This latter benefit I do not take into account when I try to build up my own reputation. This is the source of 'market failure' and, in particular, why there might typically be an underinvestment in trust formation.

XREF: Connects to public goods theory, externalities, and the free-rider problem familiar from economics of reputation and social capital.

Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking…, loc. 934