Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 18 ISSUE 3
Written by Martin KNIEPERT, Gina FINTINERU
Blockchain became known as the technology underlying the cryptocurrency bitcoin. While here this technology has received quite controversial attention, its proponents expect much more promising applications in other fields. One of these concerns food-chain management, where it is said to have the potential to revolutionise it. This paper looks at this case from an institutional economic perspective. For this, it first clarifies how a straight application of this technology matches basic microeconomic thinking, as restricted to private goods and prices, and thus also the market optimism associated with it. The paper then analyses the role of institutions in the food system as it has so far been organised and how this institutional setting might be changed in order to incorporate this new technology while safeguarding the objective of an overall economic optimum. In order to sketch out some ways in which these conceptual considerations might actually be put to the test, a cursory introduction is given to some options relating to the situation in Romania. Some orientation might thereby be provided for further work.
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