中国国有经济改革与发展系列讲座(第6期):《Enforceability v.s. Flexibility: When Do Smart Contracts Outperform Traditional Contracts?》  
发布时间:2025.06.03

主 持 人:刘瑞明 中国人民大学国有经济研究院执行院长、国家发展与战略研究院教授

时    间:2025年6月5日  15:30-17:00

地    点:  立德楼11层1133会议室

主办单位:中国人民大学国有经济研究院

内容摘要:This paper explores the economic trade-off between the automated enforceability of smart contracts and the adaptive flexibility of traditional contracts. Using a principal-agent model with incomplete contracting and hold-up risks, we compare outcomes under both systems. Traditional contracts rely on costly ex-post litigation for enforcement, offering flexibility but potentially inducing inefficient distortions or complete hold-up as litigation costs rise. Smart contracts provide strong ex-ante commitment via self-executing code, mitigating hold-up, but their rigidity limits adaptation and effectiveness hinges on blockchain security. The analysis reveals that smart contracts achieve their greatest comparative advantage not necessarily in environments with strong legal institutions, but rather where traditional contract enforcement is costly or weak. This suggests smart contracts may function as institutional substitutes, potentially finding greater adoption and yielding larger efficiency improvements in contexts with less developed legal infrastructures.

报告人:颜建晔,中国农业大学经济管理学院教授、北京食品安全政策与战略研究基地研究员、中国信息经济学会常务理事,在法国图卢兹经济学院获得博士学位,研究方向包括数字经济、产业组织、合约理论、银行经济等。曾在北京大学、对外经济贸易大学任教,亦曾在阿里巴巴及蚂蚁集团从事研究工作;在AEJ-Micro、JPubE、《经济研究》、《经济学(季刊)》等国际和国内顶尖学术期刊发表论文三十余篇;曾主持联合国开发计划署(UNDP)、国家自科、国家社科、国家高端智库办、教育部人文社科、北京市社科重点等国际、中国国家级及省部级多项研究课题;曾获美国经济协会(American Economic Association)AEJ最佳论文奖、第七届高等学校科学研究优秀成果奖(人文社会科学)、中国信息经济学优秀成果理论创新奖等。