Trust in the Shadow of the Courts

Abstract

Even if contract enforcers are as opportunistic as ordinary traders, a system of adjudication can increase the degree to which contractual obligations on large anonymous markets are fulfilled. Only if arbitrators receive a fixed income, occasional mistakes will not favour the untrustworthy. It can be shown that the presence of the courts may further the prospects of the trustworthy in a large class of situations. But under non-optimal court policies and unfavorable parameter constellations introducing courts may crowd out trustworthiness.