Why is civic honesty important to the economy?

Following an article that sampled civic honesty, Dr. Omar Al Ubaydli notes the importance of trust and honesty to a thriving economy. The article ranked a sample of 40 countries in civic honesty, where people voluntarily refrain from opportunistic behavior. Worryingly for Arab and Islamic countries, they dominated the lowest positions in the rankings, while the highest positions were reserved for the countries with the highest living standards. While it is difficult to demonstrate a definitive causal relationship between civic honesty and economic success, the data should make policymakers think hard about the need to make people trust each other more as part of their economic strategies.