Decentralized Governance and Digital Asset Prices
Keywords: AOs, cryptocurrency, blockchain, tokens, digital assets, decentralization, digital governance, Web3, FinTech, decentralized finance, DeFi, protocols, voting rights, cybersecurity, compliance, stablecoins, entrepreneurship, organizational economics, corporate governance, political economy
TL;DR: A taxonomy of DAO governance features and analyses of their impact on digital asset prices via quasi-experimental methods.
Abstract: For digital assets, is traditional corporate governance still ideal? We explore the governance of hundreds of prominent Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), classifying 28 distinct characteristics related to aspects of governance such as token holder's privileges to bring improvement proposals, the voting process, consensus mechanisms, and security features. Our findings reveal that governance practices fostering broad participation or heightened security are linked with positive abnormal returns, while barriers to improvement proposal adoption correspond to negative returns. This outperformance is also evident in non-financial metrics like user growth and lack of security breaches. Further, evidence from a regression discontinuity design using close-call votes on governance proposals suggests these innovative governance features significantly change value. Overall, our research suggests the benefits of decentralized governance models surpass those that solely concentrate on traditional corporate concerns, such as reducing agency costs, in digital markets.
Submission Number: 1
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