The Economics of Transaction Costs

Transaction cost economics began to take shape around 1970 and has since been established as an essential tool used to illuminate a wide range of problems in economics and other social sciences. This reader presents articles which together form the foundations of research in transaction cost economics. The book is divided into three parts: the background to the field including papers from Coase (1937 and 1972), Williamson (1971) and Alchian and Demsetz (1972); the apparatus of transaction cost economics, including papers on the structure and limits of firms; and the applications of transaction cost economics to firm behaviour, investment decision-making, contract bidding, regulation and legislation.