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| Author: | Langlois, R. N. |
| Title: | The secret life of mundane transaction costs |
| Journal: | Organization Studies
2006 : VOL. 27:9 , p. 1389-1410 |
| Index terms: | transaction costs division of labour property rights standards |
| Language: | eng |
| Abstract: | Transaction costs can be interpreted as 'the economic equivalent of friction (hereafter as: frc./frcs.) in physical systems'. In the present-day economics of organization, frc. is ignored. The costs (as: cts.) involved are certainly cts. of running the economic system, but they are not obviously 'frictions'. Stories about frcs. in trade are not nearly as intriguing as stories about cunning trading partners and expensive assets placed at risk. However, it is argued that these categories of cost, called as 'mundane transaction costs' (as: m-tr-cts.) by Baldwin and Clark, actually have a secret life. They are at least as important as the more glamorous cts. of asset specificity in explaining the partition btw. firm and market. In addition, there is a secret life in another sense: they have a secret life cycle. These m-tr-cts. are argued to provide better material to understand how the boundaries among firms, markets, and hybrid forms change over time. |
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