We explain the mechanics of smart contracts. We then highlight benefits of smart contracts such as overcoming commitment problems. We also discuss limitations such as the difficulty for smart contracts to access information external to the blockchain and the difficulty of integrating smart...

Priority structures are uncertain in real-life college admissions markets. This study investigates how information structures on priority affect resulting allocations. To do this, we focus on a class of real-life information structures that are represented as cutoff signals, which privately tell...

This study examines the effect of fiscal decentralization, in the form of shifting responsibilities of tax revenues, expenditure and planning from the central government to lower local governments, as well as rapidly rising income, on energy consumption for 47 Kenyan counties over the period...

This paper addresses the implications of the consolidation of the German banking industry in regard to the operation of savings banks. Savings banks are one of the pillars of the Germany’s banking system and the main providers of loans to small and medium firms that are the predominant drivers...

Decentralized Financial (DeFi) lending applications allow users to take leveraged positions in risky cryptoassets without the use of a financial intermediary, mimicking the functionality of a margin trading account without a centralized broker. This decentralization comes at a cost; leveraged...

Decentralized Finance, known as DeFi (Decentralized Finance), refers to the use of blockchain and digital assets or crypto-assets for the provision of financial services. In this way, through DeFi applications, services such as loans, insurance, crypto-asset exchanges, among others, are offered,...

The traditional financial system has demonstrated clear flaws over the past years; its closed, centralized, and opaque nature has been subject to increased criticism. Wall Street, which is an example representative of the traditional financial system, is an opaque financial hub where only a...

Blockchain technologies are designed to promote decentralization and self-governance in economic and social settings. In the context of platforms, an early claim of some proponents of these technologies was that blockchains would promote disintermediation, replacing intermediaries with...

The decentralized finance (DeFi) industry hosts billions of dollars in cryptocurrency deposits across all protocols that autonomously and independently execute financial transactions. However, little is known about how these protocols raise capital or conduct their governance. This paper aims to...

We introduce the SPRIG (Smart Proofs via Recursive Information Gathering) protocol. SPRIG allows agents to propose, question, and defend mathematical proofs in a decentralized fashion. A structure of stakes and bounties aims at producing debates in good faith and if those persist, they must go...