One thing of note is that communities that can rely on trust and thus have lower transactional cost overhead should be able to out-compete those that can't rely

One thing of note is that communities that can rely on trust and thus have lower transactional cost overhead should be able to out-compete those that can't rely on trust. An example of this is with the Hasidic jews in NY's diamond district. This is something that Thomas Sowell touches on in a few of his books. EDIT: Found my note > What economist William Easterly has called “the radius of trust” varies greatly from group to group and from country to country. Within groups like the Marwaris of India, the Chinese in Southeast Asia, or Hasidic Jews in New York’s diamond industry, transactions involving substantial sums of money can take place without written agreements or recourse to the legal system, giving these groups competitive advantage over other members of their respective societies who cannot safely engage in similar low-cost ways of doing business. Whole nations likewise differ in the levels of honesty. Bicycles can be left parked without locks in Tokyo but doing so in many other countries would be a virtual guarantee that they would be stolen. [1] [1] "Economic Facts and Fallacies" Thomas Sowell