Theory_of_Negative_Contract
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: The present work introduces a new analytical category for describing monetary exchange — the negative contract — and proposes viewing any monetary transaction as a bilateral contract with a persisting system state after its completion. In standard economic interpretation, a transaction is considered complete at the moment of settlement: Seller A receives monetary funds, Buyer B receives goods or services, the exchange is closed. The present work proposes an alternative description: in addition to the transfer of monetary funds and goods, a transaction generates a directed link between A and B that persists over time and is not captured by existing analytical instruments. This link is characterized by a vector indicating the direction of monetary flow and a scalar equal to the transaction amount. The aggregate of such links accumulated in an economic system forms a structure of negative contracts — an observable magnitude reflecting the directed redistribution of monetary funds between economic agents. Unlike aggregate inequality indicators, this structure cannot be collapsed into a single number without loss of information: the direction of flow, rather than volume alone, carries independent analytical content. The work describes the properties of the negative contract, establishes its non-transferability and distinction from debt obligations, examines the temporal and multi-circuit nature of the indicator, and illustrates its analytical potential across concrete economic situations.
Author: Pustovoy, Evgeny
Language: English
Topic: Economic Theory and Policy
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7164897275
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