Transactions via the Internet – How Can Trust be Built?

by Rebekka Rehm and Clemens Recker, researchers at iwp Institute for Economic Policy at the University of Cologne.

Selected by Cecilien-Gymnasium Düsseldorf

For transactions to take place, the market players involved must have a minimum degree of confidence in the respective exchange partner. Only if someone is confident that he or she will receive the desired product or service in a satisfactory quality they will agree to the transaction. That is not to be taken for granted! There are many situations in which one side of the market has more information than the other.

A well-known example from the economic literature is a second-hand car market, where buyers cannot identify a car’s quality easily. In the course of digital transformation, this problem seems to be aggravated: Buyers and sellers often remain anonymous. In most cases, there is at least no personal contact that could help building trust. Therefore, it is worth taking a closer look at the solutions that have emerged in the digital world: What do they look like and how well do they work? What other solutions are imaginable?