Transaction Costs
Competition and contracting have costs which are not involved - or at least are not identified as being involved - in the provision of services in-house. These costs involved in restructuring the service to contracting, conducting a competition, preparing bids, and negotiating and monitoring the contract are often referred to as transaction costs.
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Measurement of Transaction Costs and Falsification Criteria: Toward Future Directions in Empirical Research on Transaction Costs Theory Dahlstrom, Robert and Nygaard, Arne, 2005 "New Ideas in Contracting and Organizational Economics Research" Harvey S. James, Jr. (Ed.) Nova Science Publishers, New York This essay explores the issue of measuring transaction costs in empirical research, suggesting future improvements. USA
An Empirical Investigation of Ex-Post Transaction Costs in Franchised Distribution Channels
Dahlstrom, Robert and Nygaard, Arne, 1999
Journal of Marketing Research
The Mechanisms of Governance Williamson, Oliver E. , 1996 New York: Oxford University Press A collection of papers that examines economic organisation through transaction costs, drawing upon economics, law, and organisation theory to explain and compare differing institutional structures. USA
Price and Authority in Inter-Profit Centre Transactions Eccles, Robert G. & White, Harrison C., 1988 American Journal of Sociology, 94, Supplement, pp. S17-S51 This paper departs from the orthodoxy that price and authority are alternative social mechanisms for allocating resources and evaluates the extent to which transactions combine these two approaches. The authors compare three different approaches with varying price/authority balances and find that for all policies, internal transaction costs may be greater than external transaction costs. USA
The Economics of Organization: The Transaction Cost Approach Williamson, Oliver E., 1981 American Journal of Sociology, 87(3), pp.548-577 The study explores a transaction cost approach to economic organisation and considers the transaction as the formal unit of analysis, so that an understanding of transaction cost-minimisation is fundamental to explaining the behaviour of organisations. This article compares and constrasts the transaction cost approach with alternate strands of organisation theory. USA
Transaction-Cost Economics: The Governance of Contractual Relations Williamson, Oliver E., 1979 Journal of Law and Economics, 22(2), pp.233-261 This is the classic text on transaction costs and their implications for contracting. USA
Vertical Integration, Appropriable Rents, and the Competitive Contracting Process Klein, Benjamin; Crawford, Rovert G. & Alchian, Armen A. , 1978 Journal of Law and Economics, 21(2), pp.297-326 This paper builds on fundamental Coase theory that transaction and contracting costs must be considered in examining vertical integration of organisations. It explores one specific cost of the market system, viz. the possibility of post-contractual opportunistic behaviour. USA