ABSTRACT
A smart contract is an agreement enforced by blockchain technology. It supposedly allows the parties involved to conduct transactions more efficiently than a traditional contract, which is based on legal (costly) enforcement. This chapter challenges this claim. Given the need for an efficiency-enhancing adaptation of institutional arrangements – a chief problem of Oliver Williamson’s transaction cost economics – smart contracts may incur higher transaction costs than traditional contracts.
Vatiero, Massimiliano, Do Smart Contracts Incur Higher Transaction Costs than Traditional Contracts? (June 26, 2023) in K Mathis and A Tor (eds), Law and Economics of the Digital Transformation, Springer, pp 21-32, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25059-0_2.
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