Declining institutional trust is one of the central problems in modern societies. Identifying its determinants, among which inequality, is fundamental for designing suitable interventions to restore confidence in institutions and preserve the social contract. We study the relationship between the two phenomena for EU-28 countries over the period 2003–2019. We use OLS and IV estimations to show that increasing income inequality is significantly associated with reduced trust in national governments. We also find that citizens’ digital interaction with the public administrations represents a mitigating channel as it contributes to shrinking the adverse effect of inequality on institutional trust, especially for more vulnerable categories in society, such as individuals with low educational attainment and those who are unemployed. These new insights might be particularly helpful for the government's agenda to meet transparency goals and provide more digital public services. From a policy viewpoint, redistribution policies combined with a well-established e-relationship between citizens and governments may be the road to restore trust in institutions.

制度信任下降是现代社会的核心问题之一。确定其决定因素（其中包括不平等）对于设计适当的干预措施以恢复对机构的信心和维护社会契约至关重要。我们研究了 2003 年至 2019 年期间欧盟 28 国这两种现象之间的关系。我们使用 OLS 和 IV 估计来表明，收入不平等的加剧与对国家政府的信任度下降显着相关。我们还发现，公民与公共行政部门的数字互动是一种缓解渠道，因为它有助于缩小不平等对机构信任的不利影响，特别是对于社会中的弱势群体，例如教育程度较低的个人和失业者。这些新见解可能对政府实现透明度目标和提供更多数字公共服务的议程特别有帮助。从政策角度来看，再分配政策与公民和政府之间完善的电子关系相结合可能是恢复对机构信任的道路。