IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ecaffa/v28y2008i3p7-14.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Transaction Cost Economics: The Precursors

Author

Listed:
  • Oliver E. Williamson

Abstract

Theories commonly progress through four stages, from informal to pre‐formal to semi‐formal and fully formal. This paper reports on the earliest stage of transaction cost economics that extended from the 1920s to the 1970s. That the gestation stage lasted so long is partly because transaction cost economics departed significantly from the then‐prevailing economic orthodoxy. Also, and related, it is an interdisciplinary undertaking. As reported herein, transaction cost economics selectively combines economics, organisation theory and law and is the product of the contributions of some of the finest minds in those three fields.

Suggested Citation

  • Oliver E. Williamson, 2008. "Transaction Cost Economics: The Precursors," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 7-14, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecaffa:v:28:y:2008:i:3:p:7-14
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0270.2008.00838.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0270.2008.00838.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1468-0270.2008.00838.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ronald H. Coase, 2008. "The Institutional Structure of Production," Springer Books, in: Claude Ménard & Mary M. Shirley (ed.), Handbook of New Institutional Economics, chapter 2, pages 31-39, Springer.
    2. Simon, Herbert A., 1985. "Human Nature in Politics: The Dialogue of Psychology with Political Science," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 79(2), pages 293-304, June.
    3. Riordan, Michael H. & Williamson, Oliver E., 1985. "Asset specificity and economic organization," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 365-378, December.
    4. R. H. Coase, 1972. "Industrial Organization: A Proposal for Research," NBER Chapters, in: Economic Research: Retrospect and Prospect, Volume 3, Policy Issues and Research Opportunities in Industrial Organization, pages 59-73, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Simon, Herbert A., 1984. "On the behavioral and rational foundations of economic dynamics," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 35-55, March.
    6. Buchanan, James M, 1987. "The Constitution of Economic Policy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(3), pages 243-250, June.
    7. Brennan, Geoffrey & Buchanan, James, 1983. "Predictive Power and the Choice among Regimes," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 93(369), pages 89-105, March.
    8. Herbert A. Simon, 1991. "Organizations and Markets," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 5(2), pages 25-44, Spring.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ding, Yanyan & Jian, Sisi, 2022. "Strategic collaboration between land owners and charging station operators: Lease or outsource?," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 183-211.
    2. Yuepeng Zhou & Xiaoping Shi & Dengyan Ji & Xianlei Ma & Satish Chand, 2019. "Property rights integrity, tenure security and forestland rental market participation: Evidence from Jiangxi Province, China," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 43(2), pages 95-110, May.
    3. Setene, Letlama, 2020. "Coordination strategies in the South African egg value chain: A review of chain performance and fragility," Research Theses 334761, Collaborative Masters Program in Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    4. Martin Ricketts, 2010. "The Governance of Financial Transactions," Chapters, in: Steven Kates (ed.), Macroeconomic Theory and its Failings, chapter 12, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Matolcsy, Zoltan & Wakefield, James, 2017. "Multinational headquarter control of wholly owned foreign subsidiaries," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 275-293.
    6. Doris Morales & Ahmad H. Juma´h & Antonio Llorens-Rivera & Félix Cue & Ángel Ruiz, 2012. "Tendencias del traslado de actividades en las manufactureras en Puerto Rico y el título de propiedad sobre la planta física, 2005-2011," Economic Analysis Working Papers (2002-2010). Atlantic Review of Economics (2011-2016), Colexio de Economistas de A Coruña, Spain and Fundación Una Galicia Moderna, vol. 2, pages 1-1, December.
    7. Slapničar, Sergeja & Axelsen, Micheal & Bongiovanni, Ivano & Stockdale, David, 2023. "A pathway model to five lines of accountability in cybersecurity governance," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Williamson, Oliver E., 2010. "Transaction Cost Economics: The Natural Progression," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 86(3), pages 215-226.
    2. Yochanan Shachmurove, 2012. "Failing Institutions Are at the Core of the U.S. Financial Crisis," PIER Working Paper Archive 12-040, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania.
    3. Wang, Sen & Bogle, Tim & van Kooten, G. Cornelis, 2012. "Forestry and the New Institutional Economics," Working Papers 130818, University of Victoria, Resource Economics and Policy.
    4. Williamson, Oliver, 2009. "The Theory of the Firm as Governance Structure: From Choice to Contract," Ekonomicheskaya Politika / Economic Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, vol. 6, pages 111-134, December.
    5. Wandel, Jürgen, 2011. "Integrierte Strukturen im Agrar- und Ernährungssektor Russlands: Entstehungsgründe, Funktionsweise, Entwicklungsperspektiven und volkswirtschaftliche Auswirkungen. Band I und II," Studies on the Agricultural and Food Sector in Transition Economies, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), volume 63, number 63, September.
    6. Oliver E. Williamson, 2005. "The Economics of Governance," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(2), pages 1-18, May.
    7. Oliver E. Williamson, 2010. "Transaction Cost Economics: An Overview," Chapters, in: Peter G. Klein & Michael E. Sykuta (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Transaction Cost Economics, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Cordes, Christian & Richerson, Peter J. & McElreath, Richard & Strimling, Pontus, 2008. "A naturalistic approach to the theory of the firm: The role of cooperation and cultural evolution," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 125-139, October.
    9. Paul Walker, 2010. "The (Non)Theory Of The Knowledge Firm," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 57(1), pages 1-32, February.
    10. Alex Eapen & Rekha Krishnan, 2019. "Transferring Tacit Know-How: Do Opportunism Safeguards Matter for Firm Boundary Decisions?," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(4), pages 715-734, July.
    11. Marengo, Luigi, et al, 2000. "The Structure of Problem-Solving Knowledge and the Structure of Organizations," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 9(4), pages 757-788, December.
    12. Maria Rosaria Della Peruta & Manlio Giudice & Rosa Lombardi & Pedro Soto-Acosta, 2018. "Open Innovation, Product Development, and Inter-Company Relationships Within Regional Knowledge Clusters," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 9(2), pages 680-693, June.
    13. Gebhard Kirchgässner, 2014. "The role of homo oeconomicus in the political economy of James Buchanan," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 2-17, March.
    14. Rainer Bartel, 1994. "Egoismus, Altruismus und Effizienzgestaltung im öffentlichen Bereich: Argumente und lmplikationen," Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft - WuG, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik, vol. 20(2), pages 231-246.
    15. Nicholas S. Argyres & Teppo Felin & Nicolai Foss & Todd Zenger, 2012. "Organizational Economics of Capability and Heterogeneity," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(5), pages 1213-1226, October.
    16. Michael Dietrich & Jackie Krafft, 2012. "Economics and Theory of the Firm, Chap. 1 of the Handbook on Economics and Theory of the Firm, M. Dietrich and Jackie Krafft (eds), Edward Elgar: Cheltenham, 2012," Post-Print halshs-00742302, HAL.
    17. repec:clr:wugarc:y:1994:v:20i:2p:231 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Estrada, Fernando, 2010. "Los mercados de opinión pública [The markets of public opinion]," MPRA Paper 20161, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Estrada, Fernando & Diaz, Natalia, 2012. "Costos de transaccion, externalidades e innovación [Transaction costs, externalities and innovation]," MPRA Paper 35864, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Mahamoud, Ismael, 2008. "Contraintes institutionnelles et règlementaires et le secteur informel à Djibouti [Institutional and regulatory constraints and the informal sector in Djibouti]," MPRA Paper 48886, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    21. Sigmund Wagner-Tsukamoto, 2008. "Contrasting the Behavioural Business Ethics Approach and the Institutional Economic Approach to Business Ethics: Insights From the Study of Quaker Employers," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 82(4), pages 835-850, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ecaffa:v:28:y:2008:i:3:p:7-14. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0265-0665 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.