# kaal:claim:5886442-027

**Claim.** When all five drivers of positive transaction costs approach zero at once, transaction costs themselves asymptotically approach zero, a point the author names the Coasean Singularity: the point at which the rationale for the firm, for hierarchical governance, for relational contracting and for most formal institutions disappears.

**Type.** definitional  **Support.** argued

**Holds when.**

- requires simultaneous elimination of opportunism, asset specificity, bounded rationality, uncertainty and costly information

**Source quote.**

> When all five drivers of positive transaction costs approach zero simultaneously, transaction costs themselves asymptotically approach zero. This is what I have termed the Coasean Singularity herein, that is, the point at which the very rationale for the firm

**From.** Wulf A. Kaal, *The AI-to-AI Economy and the Collapse of Anthropocentric Economic Theory* (2025), New Institutional Economics and Transaction-Cost Governance, page 22

**Cite as.** Wulf A. Kaal, The AI-to-AI Economy and the Collapse of Anthropocentric Economic Theory (2025). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5886442

**Verify.** sha256 of source PDF `d2f6edebc562152f6ea706cc3ad944f7a1b81979931571e54cb782849839dfce` at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wulfkaal/Academic-Papers/main/papers/pdf/Kaal%20-%202025%20-%20The%20AI-to-AI%20Economy%20and%20the%20Collapse%20of%20Anthropocentric%20Economic%20Theory.pdf

**Topics.** economics, governance-design

**Keywords.** coasean-singularity, transaction-costs, theory-of-the-firm, coase, governance

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