IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/gla/glaewp/2011_14.html

Transaction costs and institutions

Author

Listed:
  • Charles Nolan
  • Alex Trew

Abstract

This paper proposes a simple framework for understanding endogenous transaction costs - their composition, size and implications. In a model of diversification against risk, we distinguish between inverstments in instituations that facilitate exchange and the costs of conducting exchange itself. Institutional quality and market size are determined by the decisions of risk averse agents and conditions are discussed under which the efficient allocation may be decentralized. We highlight a number of differences with models where transaction cost are exogenous, including the implications for taxation and measurement issues.

Suggested Citation

  • Charles Nolan & Alex Trew, 2011. "Transaction costs and institutions," Working Papers 2011_14, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    • Handle: RePEc:gla:glaewp:2011_14
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_199482_en.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pol Antràs & Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, 2009. "Organizations and Trade," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 43-64, May.
    2. Robert M. Townsend & Kenichi Ueda, 2006. "Financial Deepening, Inequality, and Growth: A Model-Based Quantitative Evaluation -super-1," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 73(1), pages 251-293.
    3. Andrei A. Levchenko, 2007. "Institutional Quality and International Trade," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 74(3), pages 791-819.
    4. Oliver E. Williamson, 2010. "Transaction Cost Economics: The Natural Progression," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(3), pages 673-690, June.
    5. V. Martins-da-Rocha & Yiannis Vailakis, 2010. "Financial markets with endogenous transaction costs," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 45(1), pages 65-97, October.
    6. V. Filipe MARTINS-DA-ROCHA & YIANNIS VAILAKIS, 2008. "Endogenous Transaction Costs," Discussion Papers 0810, University of Exeter, Department of Economics.
    7. Daron Acemoglu & Pol Antràs & Elhanan Helpman, 2007. "Contracts and Technology Adoption," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(3), pages 916-943, June.
    8. Greenwood, Jeremy & Jovanovic, Boyan, 1990. "Financial Development, Growth, and the Distribution of Income," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 1076-1107, October.
    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. Cristina Gabriela COSMULESE, 2021. "Theoretical Perspectives Of Corporate Governance," European Journal of Accounting, Finance & Business, "Stefan cel Mare" University of Suceava, Romania - Faculty of Economics and Public Administration, West University of Timisoara, Romania - Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, vol. 15(25), pages 8-15, February.

    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. Nolan Charles & Trew Alex, 2015. "Transaction Costs and Institutions: Investments in Exchange," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 15(2), pages 391-432, July.
    2. Jaimovich, Esteban, 2019. "Roadways, input sourcing, and patterns of specialization," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    3. Pol Antràs & Robert W. Staiger, 2012. "Offshoring and the Role of Trade Agreements," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(7), pages 3140-3183, December.
    4. Juan Carluccio & Thibault Fally, 2012. "Global Sourcing under Imperfect Capital Markets," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 94(3), pages 740-763, August.
    5. Akisik, Orhan & Gal, Graham, 2023. "IFRS, financial development and income inequality: An empirical study using mediation analysis," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 47(2).
    6. Wenni Lei & Yuwei Luo, 2022. "Institutions Rule in Export Diversity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-14, September.
    7. Van Biesebroeck, Johannes & Zhang, Lijun, 2014. "Interdependent product cycles for globally sourced intermediates," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 143-156.
    8. Gregory Corcos & Delphine M. Irac & Giordano Mion & Thierry Verdier, 2008. "The Determinants of Intra-Firm Trade," Development Working Papers 267, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano.
    9. Siying Ding & Ahmad Lashkaripour & Volodymyr Lugovskyy, 2024. "A Global Perspective on the Incidence of Monopoly Distortions," CESifo Working Paper Series 11211, CESifo.
    10. Yida Wang & Jiangjiao Wang, 2025. "Institutional distance, trade agreements, and intellectual property trade networks: Evidence from cross-border data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 20(2), pages 1-17, February.
    11. Park, Se Mi, 2024. "Commercial arbitration regime and sourcing decision," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    12. Karabay, Bilgehan, 2022. "A new dimension in global value chains: Control vs. delegation in input procurement," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    13. Donatella Baiardi & Claudio Morana, 2015. "Financial deepening and income distribution inequality in the euro area," CeRP Working Papers 153, Center for Research on Pensions and Welfare Policies, Turin (Italy).
    14. Ziv Chinzara & Radhika Lahiri, 2012. "Economic growth and inequality patterns in the presence of costly technology adoption and uncertainty," School of Economics and Finance Discussion Papers and Working Papers Series 280, School of Economics and Finance, Queensland University of Technology.
    15. Saad, Ayhab F., 2021. "Institutional change in the global economy: How trade reform can be detrimental to welfare," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 97-110.
    16. Trew, Alex, 2008. "Efficiency, depth and growth: Quantitative implications of finance and growth theory," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 1550-1568, December.
    17. Keshab Bhattarai, 2015. "Financial Deepening and Economic Growth in Advanced and Emerging Economies," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(1), pages 178-195, February.
    18. Ehrich, M. & Hess, S., . "The Ability of Organisations to Adopt Foreign Trade Standards," Proceedings “Schriften der Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften des Landbaues e.V.”, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA), vol. 51.
    19. Åsa Johansson & Eduardo Olaberría, 2014. "Global Trade and Specialisation Patterns Over the Next 50 Years," OECD Economic Policy Papers 10, OECD Publishing.
    20. Altomonte, Carlo & Rungi, Armando, 2013. "Business Groups as Hierarchies of Firms: Determinants of Vertical Integration and Performance," Economy and Society 148920, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D02 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Institutions: Design, Formation, Operations, and Impact
    • D51 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - Exchange and Production Economies
    • L14 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Transactional Relationships; Contracts and Reputation

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:gla:glaewp:2011_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: Business School Research Team (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dpglauk.html .

    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.