• Efimov Oleg Nikolaevich, Candidate of Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Economics and Management
• Kurganova Tatyana Yurievna, student
• Russian the University of Economics named after G. V. Plekhanov

• EFFICIENCY OF MARKET TRANSACTIONS
• RESPONSIBILITIES
• RESOURCES
• EXPENSES
• PRODUCTION
• OWN
• TRANSACTION

The article discusses the concept of transaction and transaction costs, presents various approaches to their definition. The relevance of this topic for the activities of enterprises in the conditions of the modern economy is revealed. Analyzed oil company concerning the use of transactions, recommendations are given on the problem of minimizing costs.

• Reserves for the growth of revenue from the sale of products on the example of LLC agrofirma
• Business model and enterprise insurance in times of crisis

The study of problems related to the theoretical and methodological analysis of transaction costs in the activities of an enterprise is one of the priority and, at the same time, little-studied areas of modern economic theory. In the economic literature, the term "transaction costs" has not received an unambiguous interpretation. At the same time, this concept is key point new institutional theory. The purpose of this article is to analyze the problem of transaction costs in the activities of an enterprise from the standpoint of economic theory.

The importance of transaction costs arising in the process of functioning of socio-economic objects of various levels is analyzed in the works of J. Commons, R. Coase, O. Williamson, C. Arrow and other scientists involved in research in the field of economic theory.

The problems of estimating transaction costs were studied by G. Demsetz, D. North and J. Wallis, V.L. Tambovtsev, V.E. Kokorev and others.

The concept of "transaction" was introduced into scientific circulation by J. Commons. He defined them as follows: “Transactions are not the exchange of goods, but the alienation and acquisition by individuals of property rights and freedoms created by society, which must be negotiated between interested parties before work begins to produce anything, or consumers can consume, or there will be a physical exchange of goods. This position, in our opinion, connects the use of the category "transaction" only with property rights and freedoms, abstracting from other types of economic activity.

O. Williamson considers transactions in relation to successive stages of production: “A transaction takes place when a product or service passes from the final point of one technological process to the starting point of another, adjacent to the first. One stage of production ends and another begins. The limitation of this approach, from our point of view, is due to the fact that the use of this term is limited to the situations of the technological process.

The founder of the modern theory of transaction costs is R. Coase. In 1937 he wrote: “Outside the firm, production is directed by price dynamics and coordinated through exchange transactions in the market. But within the firm, these market transactions are absent, and the role of a complex market structure is played by the entrepreneur-coordinator, who directs production. Obviously, these are alternative methods of coordinating production.

O. Williamson compares transaction costs in the economy with friction in mechanical systems, while K. Arrow defines them as the costs of keeping economic systems running.

The classic definition of transaction costs was given by T. Eggertsson: “In general terms, transaction costs are the costs that arise when individuals exchange ownership of economic assets and secure their exclusive rights” . R. Matthews proposed the following definition: "The fundamental idea of ​​transaction costs is that they consist of the costs of drawing up and concluding a contract, as well as the costs of monitoring compliance with the contract and ensuring its implementation, as opposed to production costs, which are the costs of the actual execution of the contract" .

The different nature of transaction costs and the short timeframe in which the company has to meet them leads to the diversion of not only financial, but also intellectual and organizational resources to these costs.

Given the high level of business sensitivity to the growth of any type of costs, they attach a particularly important role to transaction costs in business development, and the problem of their analysis and minimization is quite relevant today.

The following definition can also be found in the literature: transaction costs are the value of resources (money, time, labor, etc.) spent on planning, adapting and ensuring control over the fulfillment of obligations assumed by individuals in the process of alienation and assignment of property rights and freedoms accepted in society.

The inevitability of the emergence of transaction costs is due to the fact that no firm can exist in isolation from the external environment. One way or another, she is forced to interact with other subjects of the economy: to acquire raw materials, materials, fixed assets, services, hire personnel, sell her products, works, services, etc. This is the objective nature of the costs under consideration.

On the other hand, the market and the firm can be represented as a set of business processes, but only with the difference that market coordination is carried out on the market (through the mechanism of supply and demand and other market institutions), which results in transaction costs. Within the firm, intra-firm coordination is carried out (through administrative and managerial influence, norms and rules), which are part of the transformation costs. Therefore, including or, conversely, excluding certain business processes, one can influence the level of transaction and transformation costs. This determines the subjective component of transaction costs.

It should also be noted that transaction costs do not always take the form of money, and in some cases their value cannot be reduced to a cost meter. For example, it takes time to collect and process information when choosing counterparties. In this case, the time spent can be measured salary workers involved in information processing, but after some time, alternatives may no longer be available and opportunities missed.

Summing up the analysis of various approaches to the definition of transaction costs, we offer the author's approach to this category: "transaction costs are the costs that arise in the process of redistributing resources by the transaction sector of the economy within itself or into the transformational sector of the economy, as well as in the implementation of transaction activities."

Using the example of the oil company Bashneft, we will consider the problem of transaction costs and determine whether they affect the activities of the enterprise.

PJSC ANK Bashneft is a dynamically developing Russian vertically integrated oil company. At the end of 2014, the company ranks sixth in terms of oil production and fourth in terms of primary refining among Russian oil companies. Bashneft demonstrates sustainable financial results and consistently high dividend payments.

Consider the external and internal transaction costs of the company. The data are presented in table 1.

Table 1. Transaction costs of PJSOC Bashneft for 2013–2015 (thousand roubles.)

Domestic transaction costs
External transaction costs
Transaction costs

We see that there is a clear increase in transaction costs. There was a very big jump between 2014 and 2015, with costs more than doubling. Note that the internal transaction costs of an oil company are not as high as compared to external ones.

The presented data show a trend towards an increase in all types of transaction costs. It can be noted that external transaction costs are much higher than internal ones, therefore, the company has not yet reached its maximum size. If necessary, further concentration of production is possible to achieve this size.

To calculate the efficiency created by PJSOC Bashneft, a vertically integrated structure, you can use the transaction efficiency indicator proposed by A. Mishchenko. It is calculated using the following formula:

Kart.=P/Irt

Where Kart is the coefficient economic efficiency market transactions for the oil company as a whole, P - the amount of profit of the oil company, Ir - total transaction costs

Figure 1 shows the results of calculating the efficiency of transactions in accordance with the formula.

In the graph, we see that the use of transaction costs favorably affects the activities of the oil company. Since 2013, the efficiency of transactions has been rapidly increasing. By 2015, the transaction efficiency ratio shows great importance This means that the company makes good use of its resources. It is important to note that the consolidation of production into a single production chain increases the efficiency of economic transactions for PJSOC Bashneft, and, consequently, the efficiency of the entire company as a whole increases.

The results of numerous studies in the field of institutional economics and business economics indicate an increase in the importance of transaction costs in the activities of enterprises.

Transaction costs are of great importance in explaining many economic phenomena. At the same time, the methodology for generating information on such costs is still insufficiently developed. The problem of methodology consists mainly in the fact that transaction costs are not universally recognized objects of accounting and analysis. The objects are separate elements of such costs, which are traditionally systematized into direct, general production, general economic and commercial. However, in order to introduce valuable results of research in the field of institutional economics into management practice, the traditional systematization is insufficient and needs to be supplemented. An equally significant problem, in our opinion, is the ambiguous interpretation of transaction costs.

In my opinion, in order to reduce transaction costs, one should avoid unnecessary expensive expenses (for example, on business trips, collecting and processing the necessary information), prevent legal conflicts, increase coordination of actions within the company, select preferred customers, and also form attachment to the company of potential examples. .

Bibliography

1. Commons, J.R. Institutiohal economics/ J.R. Commons// American economic review. - 1931. - Vol. 21.-No.12. - p.648-657.
2. Efimov O.N. Enterprise Economics [Electronic resource]: tutorial/ Efimov O.N. - Electron, textual data. - Saratov: Higher education, 2014. URL: http://www.iprbookshop.ru/23085
3. Efimov O.N., Yapparova R.R. Anti-crisis financial management of the organization. Scientific - popular magazine Internet magazine "NovaInfo" ("NovaInfo"), 2014.-№28. Access mode: http://website/
4. Efimov O.N., Salyaeva R.L. Improving the formation and use current assets. Scientific - popular magazine Internet magazine "NovaInfo" ("NovaInfo"), 2014.-№28. Access mode: http://website/
5. Efimov O. N., Khabirova E. R. Measures for enterprise cost management. Electronic periodical"Economy and Society" - Access mode: http://www.iupr.ru/
6. Commons, J.R. Legal foundations of capitalism / J.R. Commons. - M.: graduate School Economics, 2011. - 416 p.
7. Malakhov, S. Some aspects of the theory of the imperfect competitive balance(two-factor model of transaction costs) / S. Malakhov // Questions of Economics. - 2015. - No. 10. - S. 77-86.
8. Oleinik, A. Households in the transitional economy: types and features of behavior in the market / A. Oleinik// Questions of Economics. - 2015. - No. 12. - S. 56-66.
9. Samovoleva, S.A. Improving the expertise of innovative projects: problems of accounting for transaction costs / S.A. Samovoleva//Problems of information economy. Strategy for innovative development of the Russian economy: c6. scientific tr.; ed. R.M. Nizhegorodtsev. - M.: LIBROKOM, 2015. - Issue. VII. - S. 398-408.
10. Furubotn, E.G. Institutions and economic theory: achievements of the new institutional economic theory / E.G. Furubotn, R. Richter; per. from English. ed. S. Katkalo, N.P. Drozdova. - St. Petersburg: Ed. House of St. Petersburg State University, 2015. - 702 p.
11. Documentation joint-stock company/ PJSC ANK Bashneft [website]. URL: http:// http://www.bashneft.ru/

Transaction costs (Transaction costs) are costs that are not directly related to the production of products (the cost of raw materials, wages, materials, transportation, etc.), and with the indirect costs associated with this production for collecting and searching for all the information necessary for the activity, concluding various transactions, contracts, agreements, etc.

This term was first introduced by the American economist R. Coase in his work "The Nature of the Firm" in 1937, who later won the Nobel Prize in Economics precisely for the study of transaction costs in 1991.

There are several types of transaction costs. We list the most important of them.

1. Information Search Costs. This refers, first of all, to the costs associated with the search for counterparties of economic and other transactions, as well as the search for the maximum favorable conditions, in relation to price, purchase and sale. Before concluding the necessary transaction, the economic agent collects the information it needs about the counterparty (for example, Insurance Company, before insuring your life, will require from you a lot of certificates about your health, and will also check their authenticity). Prices for the same good can vary significantly in different markets, and each of us knows what people with lower incomes before buying required item, will first go around several stores and markets in search of a low price.
2. Costs of concluding a business agreement (contract). To conclude the necessary agreement between the parties, the expenditure of money and time is required. For example, you are about to publish a detective novel that you have written. You will need a knowledgeable agent to negotiate with the publisher, so you will need funds to pay for the agent. The negotiations themselves will take some time. And finally, signing the long-awaited contract, as well as a friendly dinner with the publisher, will also be the transaction costs of concluding the contract.
3. Measurement costs. All goods have various properties that bring utility to their owner. For example, you are going to buy a fur coat. Before making a purchase, you need to make sure of the quality of the fur, dyeing, tailoring, etc. A picky buyer, before choosing, will wrinkle the fur, shake the fur coat, try to pull out the pile and maybe even sniff in order to determine the quality of the dressing. In this case, the cost of measurement makes it difficult to buy for those who do not have knowledge about the product. Minimizes the costs of measurement such a property as a trademark (brand) of a well-known company, but in this case, no one is immune from forgery. Measurement costs are also associated with the purchase of measuring equipment (calculators, scales, dosimeters, cash registers, etc.).
4. Cost of specification and protection of property rights. It can be noted that any specification, as well as the protection of property rights, is associated with an accurate definition of the object or subject of ownership, law enforcement agencies, the functioning of the judicial system, etc. As a striking example, consider the activities of many private small businesses in the recent past of Russia. In fact, the right of private property of any firm should be protected by the state, as in any civilized country in the world with a developed market economy. But, if for some reason the state does not cope with this task in full, then private business resorts to alternative means of protecting its property. In other words, firms resort to searching for so-called "roofs" that perform security functions for a fee.
5. Costs of Opportunistic Behavior. Those. costs associated with dishonesty and deceit, concealment of information that economic agents may encounter in their activities.

   For example, revealing the punishment of a dishonest counterparty that violates the terms of the contract entails considerable costs. Costs are also required to protect oneself from such opportunistic behavior. For example, in currency exchange offices and cash desks of many financial and credit institutions there are special devices for detecting counterfeit banknotes. Honey connoisseurs, when buying it, without fail check it with a special chemical pencil. Dipping a pencil into honey, a person looks at the reaction: when stained in purple, it can be concluded that the honey is not real.

Transaction costs permeate the entire sphere of the economic life of society. We all face similar costs at every turn, sometimes without realizing it. Scientists often compare transaction costs in economics and friction in physics, drawing an analogy between them. The American economist D. Stigler wrote that “ the world with no transaction costs is as strange as the physical world with no friction».

R. Coase argued that if all the types of transaction costs listed above are suddenly absent, then nothing can interfere with the completion of transactions (transactions) and, as a result, eternity will be lived in a matter of fractions of a second. Exchange transactions would take place instantly, because not the slightest fraction of resources would be spent on the search for this or that information.

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Volchik V.V.

1. The concept and types of transactions

The concept of transaction was first introduced into scientific circulation by J. Commons.

A transaction is not an exchange of goods, but an alienation and appropriation of property rights and freedoms created by society. This definition makes sense (Commons) because institutions provide for the dissemination of will individual person outside the area within which it can influence environment directly by their actions, that is, beyond the scope of physical control, and therefore turn out to be transactions, in contrast to individual behavior as such or the exchange of goods.

Commons distinguished three main types of transactions:

1) Transaction transaction - serves to carry out the actual alienation and appropriation of property rights and freedoms, and in its implementation, the mutual consent of the parties is required, based on economic interest each of them.

In the transaction of the transaction, the condition of symmetry of relations between counterparties is observed. The hallmark of the transaction transaction, according to Commons, is not the production, but the transfer of goods from hand to hand.

2) The transaction of control - the key in it is the relationship of control of subordination, which involves such interaction between people when the right to make decisions belongs to only one side. In a management transaction, behavior is clearly asymmetric, which is a consequence of the asymmetry of the position of the parties and, accordingly, the asymmetry of legal relations.

3) The transaction of rationing - with it, the asymmetry of the legal status of the parties is preserved, but the place of the managing party is occupied by a collective body that performs the function of specifying rights. Rationing transactions include: the preparation of the company's budget by the board of directors, the federal budget by the government and approval by a representative authority, the decision of the arbitration court on a dispute that arises between acting entities, through which wealth is distributed. There is no control in the rationing transaction. Through such a transaction, wealth is endowed to one or another economic agent.

The presence of transaction costs makes certain types of transactions more or less economical, depending on the circumstances of time and place. Therefore, the same operations can be mediated various types transactions depending on the rules they order.

2. The concept of transaction costs

Criticism of the position of the neoclassical theory that the exchange takes place without costs, served as the basis for the introduction of a new concept in economic analysis - transaction costs (transaction cost).

The concept of transaction costs was introduced by R. Coase in the 30s in his article "Nature of the Firm". It has been used to explain the existence of such hierarchical structures as opposed to the market, such as the firm. R. Coase associated the formation of these "islands of consciousness" with their relative advantages in terms of saving on transaction costs. He saw the specifics of the functioning of the company in the suppression of the price mechanism and its replacement by a system of internal administrative control.

Within the framework of modern economic theory, transaction costs have received many interpretations, sometimes diametrically opposed.

So K. Arrow defines transaction costs as the costs of operating the economic system. Arrow compared the effect of transaction costs in economics with the effect of friction in physics. Based on such assumptions, conclusions are drawn that the closer the economy is to the Walrasian general equilibrium model, the lower the level of transaction costs in it, and vice versa.

In the interpretation of D. North, Transaction costs "consist of the costs of assessing the useful properties of the object of exchange and the costs of ensuring rights and forcing them to be observed." These costs serve as a source of social, political and economic institutions.

In the theories of some economists, transaction costs exist not only in a market economy (Coase, Arrow, North), but also in alternative ways. economic organization and in particular in the planned economy (S. Chang, A. Alchian, Demsets). Thus, according to Chang, the maximum transaction costs are observed in the planned economy, which ultimately determines its inefficiency.

2. Typology of transaction costs Transaction and transformation costs

There are many classifications and typologies of transaction costs in the economic literature. The most common is the following typology, which includes five types of transaction costs:

1. Information search costs. Before a deal is made or a contract is concluded, it is necessary to have information about where to find potential buyers and sellers of the relevant goods and factors of production, what are the current this moment prices. The costs of this kind are made up of the time and resources required to conduct the search, as well as the losses associated with the incompleteness and imperfection of the acquired information.

2. The costs of negotiating. The market requires the diversion of significant funds for negotiations on the terms of the exchange, for the conclusion and execution of contracts. The main tool for saving this kind of costs is standard (standard) contracts.

3. Measurement costs. Any product or service is a set of characteristics. The act of exchange inevitably takes into account only some of them, and the accuracy of their assessment (measurement) is extremely approximate. Sometimes the qualities of a product of interest are not measurable at all, and to evaluate them one has to use surrogates (for example, to judge the taste of apples by their color). This includes the costs of the appropriate measuring equipment, the actual measurement itself, the implementation of measures designed to protect the parties from measurement errors and, finally, the losses from these errors. Measurement costs increase with increasing accuracy requirements.

Huge savings in measurement costs have been achieved by mankind as a result of the invention of standards for weights and measures. In addition, such forms of business practices as warranty repairs, company labels, purchasing batches of goods from samples, etc. are driven by the goal of saving these costs.

4. Costs of specification and protection of property rights. This category includes expenses for the maintenance of courts, arbitration, state bodies, the time and resources6 required to restore violated rights, as well as losses from their poor specification and unreliable protection. Some authors (D. North) add here the costs of maintaining a consensus ideology in society, since educating society members in the spirit of observing generally accepted unwritten rules and ethical norms is a much more economical way to protect property rights than formalized legal control.

5. Costs of opportunistic behavior. This is the most hidden and, from the point of view of economic theory, the most interesting element of transaction costs.

There are two main forms of opportunistic behavior. The first is called moral hazard.

Moral hazard arises when in a contract one party relies on the other, and obtaining valid information about its behavior requires high costs or is impossible at all. The most common type of opportunistic behavior of this kind is shirking, when the agent works with less output than is required of him under the contract.

Particularly favorable soil for shirking is created in the conditions of joint work whole group. For example, how to highlight the personal contribution of each employee to the total result of activity<команды>factory or government agency? We have to use surrogate measurements and, say, judge the productivity of many workers not by the result, but by the costs (like the duration of work), but these indicators often turn out to be inaccurate.

If the personal contribution of each agent to the overall result is measured with large errors, then his reward will be weakly related to the actual efficiency of his work. Hence the negative incentives that encourage shirking.

In private firms and in government agencies, special complex and expensive structures are being created, whose tasks include monitoring the behavior of agents, detecting cases of opportunism, imposing penalties, etc. Reducing the costs of opportunistic behavior is the main function of a significant part of the administrative apparatus of various organizations.

The second form of opportunistic behavior is extortion. Opportunities for it appear when several production factors work in close cooperation for a long time and get used to each other so much that each becomes irreplaceable, unique for the rest of the group. This means that if some factor decides to leave the group, then the other participants in the cooperation will not be able to find an equivalent replacement for it on the market and will suffer irreparable losses. Therefore, the owners of unique (in relation to a given group of participants) resources have the opportunity for blackmail in the form of a threat to leave the group. Even when<вымогательство>remains only a possibility, it always turns out to be associated with real losses (The most radical form of protection against extortion is the transformation of interdependent (interspecific) resources into jointly owned property, the integration of property in the form of a single bundle of powers for all team members).

The above classification is not the only one, for example, there is also the classification of K. Menard:

1. Isolation costs (similar to 5 (shirking).

The purpose of the production of any goods is to obtain the maximum benefit from their sale. There are two ways to achieve this goal: either to reduce its production, or to increase the cost.

However, increasing the value is a rather unpopular method of increasing the profit from the sale. The result may be the opposite. And reducing financial investments in production can be an effective method for obtaining high profits.

There are many types of costs for enterprises that produce products. The main ones are production and transactional.

Production costs

Not a single production is complete without labor resources, material and raw materials for the production of goods. Their acquisition requires material costs. These are called production costs.

Production costs - the sum of all Money spent on the acquisition of resources necessary for the production of products.

According to accounting, it is called the cost price. In turn, it includes the cost of wages, repayment of loans, if any, as well as all costs that arise in the process of selling the product and promoting it.

Production costs are defined as the difference between the cost of production and its market value. The basis for calculating this type of cost is the amount of money spent on one. In the process of production, changes in prices for various materials and components, as well as maintenance of the technological process, are possible. However, these changes will affect only the minimum costs.

There are individual production costs that relate to one individual company and social costs that are characteristic of the economy of the state as a whole.

Also this species costs are divided into:

• economic;
• accounting;
• permanent;
• variables.

Transaction costs

This type of costs appeared in their classification relatively recently. This is a new concept in economic theory, and is currently widely used. This concept was first introduced by Coase. It was he who put forward the theory that being on the market for goods and services does not cost the company for free. He called these costs transaction costs.

If production costs are directly related to the production of products, then transaction costs are associated with the process of relations between market participants. Later, transaction costs began to be understood as all the costs of obtaining information and processing it, concluding contracts, negotiating, signing and complying with various contracts.

Types of transaction costs

According to modern economic theory, there are the following types of transaction costs:

• Costs incurred in the process of collecting information. Before you purchase resources, you need to spend time looking for suppliers. This is the collection of information. It is associated with the costs of time and money spent on the search for participants in the agreement.

• The cost of negotiating and signing contracts. IN modern world the process of negotiating and signing contracts requires significant financial resources. The more people involved in this, the greater this type of cost. Violation of contracts or breakdown of negotiations leads to even greater financial losses.

• Measurement costs. All resources used have their own characteristics. Data about them is known to the buyer only partially. Often when purchasing raw materials, an entrepreneur has to rely on recommendations and his intuition.

• The costs associated with protecting the rights to the product.

In any case, all market participants strive to reduce production and transaction costs. After all, their reduction leads to an increase in company profits.

1.3 Classifications of transaction costs

A significant number of types of classifications of transaction costs is a consequence of the plurality of approaches to the study of this problem. O. Williamson distinguishes two types of transaction costs: ex ante and ex post. Ex ante costs include the costs of drafting and negotiating an agreement. Ex post costs include organizational and operational costs associated with the use of the management structure; costs arising from poor adaptation; costs of litigation arising in the course of adjusting contractual relations to unforeseen circumstances; costs associated with the fulfillment of contractual obligations.

K. Menard divides transaction costs into 4 groups:

Isolation costs;

Scale costs;

Information costs;

Behavior costs.

In the functioning of any organization, there is, first of all, the problem of inseparability, and this is precisely why the total costs of singling out arise. In most cases, economic activity is carried out by joint efforts, and it is impossible to accurately measure the marginal productivity of each factor involved and its reward. K. Menard gives an example of a team of loaders: “In order to set the wages of the team, the use of the organization is more efficient than the use of the market. The organization outperforms the market even when the latter requires too detailed, otherwise impossible, differentiation.

Further, K. Menard singles out the costs of scale. The larger the market, the more impersonal the acts of exchange are, and the more it is necessary to develop institutional mechanisms that determine the nature of the contract, the rules for its application, sanctions for non-compliance with obligations, etc. Conclusion employment contracts designed to stabilize the relationship between employer and hired, supply contracts - to ensure a regular flow of costs - are partly due to the need to establish "trust, which the size of the markets and the periodic contracting would make both problematic and costly" .

Information costs represent a separate category. The transaction is associated with information system, the role of which in the modern economy is played by the price system. This category includes costs covering all aspects of the functioning of the information system: the costs of coding, the cost of signaling, the costs of training to use the system, etc.

The most famous domestic typology of transaction costs is the classification proposed by R. Kapelyushnikov:

1. Information search costs. Before a deal is made or a contract is concluded, it is necessary to have information about where you can find potential buyers and sellers of the relevant goods and factors of production, what are the current prices. The costs of this kind are made up of the time and resources required to conduct the search, as well as the losses associated with the incompleteness and imperfection of the acquired information.

2. The costs of negotiating. The market requires the diversion of significant funds for negotiations on the terms of the exchange, for the conclusion and execution of contracts. The main tool for saving this kind of costs is standard (standard) contracts.

3. Measurement costs. Any product or service is a set of characteristics. In the act of exchange, only some of them are inevitably taken into account, and the accuracy of their assessment (measurement) is extremely approximate. Sometimes the qualities of a product of interest are not measurable at all, and to evaluate them one has to use surrogates (for example, to judge the taste of apples by their color). This includes the costs of the appropriate measuring equipment, the actual measurement itself, the implementation of measures designed to protect the parties from measurement errors and, finally, the losses from these errors. Measurement costs increase with increasing accuracy requirements.

4. Costs of specification and protection of property rights. This category includes the costs of maintaining courts, arbitration, state bodies, the time and resources required to restore violated rights, as well as losses from their poor specification and unreliable protection. Some authors (D. North) add here the costs of maintaining a consensus ideology in society, since educating society members in the spirit of observing generally accepted unwritten rules and ethical norms is a much more economical way to protect property rights than formalized legal control. transactional economic cost institution

5. Costs of opportunistic behavior. This is the most hidden and, from the point of view of economic theory, the most interesting element of transaction costs.

There are two main forms of opportunistic behavior. The first is called moral hazard. Moral hazard arises when one party relies on the other in a contract, and obtaining valid information about its behavior requires high costs or is impossible at all. The most common type of opportunistic behavior of this kind is shirking, when the agent works with less efficiency than is required of him under the contract. If the personal contribution of each agent to the overall result is measured with large errors, then his reward will be weakly related to the actual efficiency of his work. Hence the negative incentives that encourage shirking.

Special complex and expensive structures are being created in private firms and government agencies, whose tasks include monitoring the behavior of agents, detecting cases of opportunism, imposing penalties, etc. Reducing the costs of opportunistic behavior is the main function of a significant part of the administrative apparatus of various organizations.

The second form of opportunistic behavior is extortion. Opportunities for it appear when several production factors work in close cooperation for a long time and get used to each other so much that each becomes irreplaceable, unique for the rest of the group. This means that if some factor decides to leave the group, then the other participants in the cooperation will not be able to find an equivalent replacement for it on the market and will suffer irreparable losses. Therefore, the owners of unique (in relation to a given group of participants) resources have the opportunity for blackmail in the form of a threat to leave the group. Even when “extortion” remains only a possibility, it always comes with real losses. (The most radical form of protection against extortion is the transformation of interdependent (interspecific) resources into jointly owned property, the integration of property in the form of a single bundle of powers for all team members).

In a market economy, the costs of a firm can be divided into three groups: 1) transformational, 2) organizational, 3) transactional.

Transformation costs - transformation costs physical properties products in the process of using factors of production.

Organizational costs - the costs of ensuring control and allocation of resources within the organization, as well as the costs of minimizing opportunistic behavior within the organization.

Transactional and organizational costs are interrelated concepts, an increase in one leads to a decrease in the other and vice versa.

In developed countries, there is a tendency to reduce specific transaction costs, which leads to an increase in the number of transactions, and therefore the volume of total costs in the economy may grow. However, in Russia, due to the existence of inefficient institutions, administrative barriers and restrictions, average transaction costs remain unacceptably high. high level, which limits the volume and number of transactions, leads to an increase in the marginal costs of enterprises exposed to them.

Thus, the impact of growing transaction costs on the market equilibrium is carried out through the mechanism of introducing additional taxes. As can be seen from Figure 1, the market individual product This leads to higher prices and lower sales volumes. This position of the model is consistent with the realities of economic practice in Russia, where there are relatively high prices compared to household income.

Figure 1. Equilibrium shift due to rising transaction costs

The shift in the supply curve will be the stronger, the higher the level of transaction costs TC.

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Traditional economic theory assumes that any interaction between economic agents takes place smoothly and instantly.

Transaction costs- costs that arise in the process of establishing relations between economic entities.

In order for the transaction to take place, it is necessary to collect information about the prices and quality of goods and services, agree on its conditions, control the conscientiousness of its implementation by the partner, and if she is still upset because of his fault, then in this case, in order to achieve compensation, it happens a lot of effort needs to be put in. Therefore, transactions can require significant costs and be accompanied by serious losses. These costs are called transactional.

In today's world, economic entities spend great efforts to find for themselves a position that would best suit their interests. In this regard, there are exchange costs, or transaction costs. The problems of transaction costs are considered in sufficient detail within the framework of modern institutional theory by many researchers.

K. Arrow defined transaction costs as "the costs of operating the economic system." He attributed to them the information and communication costs of interaction, which include the costs of preventing outsiders from using this benefit, the costs associated with the exchange of information, including the transfer and receipt of information about the conditions of transactions, the costs of disequilibrium or alternative distribution of resources.

Admittedly, transaction costs are not directly measurable. The only attempt to quantify their level on the material of the US economy was made by J. Wallis and D. North. The basis of the analysis is the distinction they introduced between “transformational” (associated with physical impact on an object) and transaction costs: “Transformation costs are costs associated with the transformation of costs into finished products, costs for the implementation of a transformational function” . Both transformational and transaction costs are recognized as productive. Their behavioral similarity suggests that economic agents tend to minimize total amount those and other costs, and therefore do not distinguish between them. Both the transformation function and the transaction function require real costs: "Transaction costs depend on the costs of labor, land, capital, and entrepreneurial talent that are used in the process of market exchange." Within certain limits, these two categories of costs are interchangeable. To determine transaction costs, J. Wallis and D. North use the following criterion: from the point of view of the consumer, these costs are all his costs, the cost of which is not included in the price paid by him to the seller; from the point of view of the seller, these costs are all his costs that he would not incur if he "sold" the goods to himself. For example, when buying a house, the buyer's transaction costs will be determined by hiring a lawyer, time spent inspecting the houses, collecting price information, paying a fee to legalize the transaction, and so on. For the seller, these costs will consist of advertising costs, hiring a real estate agent, time spent showing the house, and so on. At the same time, the act of sale and purchase can cause secondary transactions on the side of the buyer and the seller: for example, hiring a lawyer or a real estate agent. Therefore, the authors single out a market component as part of transaction costs. The part of the cost that is explicitly valued in the market is what they call "transactional services."

J. Wallis and D. North use the following criteria to determine transaction costs:

• ? all expenses of the consumer, the cost of which is not included in the price paid to the seller;
• ? all costs the seller would not have incurred had he sold the goods to himself.

Thus, transaction costs include the costs of making decisions, developing plans and organizing future activities, negotiating its content and conditions when business relationship two or more participants enter, the costs associated with changing plans, renegotiating the terms of the transaction and resolving disputes when new circumstances dictate it, the costs caused by compliance with the agreement by all participants. They also include any losses arising from inefficiencies. joint decisions, contracts, reactions to changed conditions, ineffective protection of agreements.

The allocation of a whole class of costs made it possible to raise the question of the reaction of economic agents to their presence. Since transaction costs limit the possibilities of mutually beneficial cooperation, economic agents are interested in reducing them and will be ready to take the necessary measures for this.

Transactions can be characterized by a number of features.

• 1. According to the degree of specificity:
  • ? are common;
  • ? specific.
• 2. According to the degree of regularity:
  • ? single;
  • ? repetitive.
• 3. According to the degree of uncertainty:
  • ? weakly dependent on future events;
  • ? highly dependent on future events.
• 4. According to the degree of measurability of the characteristics of the transaction:
  • ? with easily measurable end result;
  • ? with a hard-to-measure end result.
• 5. According to the degree of interdependence of transactions:
  • ? autonomous;
  • ? intertwined with other transactions.

In the classification of transaction costs, two groups can be distinguished: 1) preliminary (ex ante); 2) final (ex post).

TO upfront costs relate:

• ? various costs for finding profitable business relationships (partners, investors, clients);
• ? the costs of negotiating and concluding contracts;
• ? the cost of paying for the services of intermediaries;
• ? the costs of providing guarantees for the implementation of the transaction.

TO final transaction costs can be attributed:

• ? adaptive costs for unforeseen events;
• ? legal costs for the elimination of contractual disagreements;
• ? costs of conflict resolution in non-judicial structures;
• ? costs of exact fulfillment of contractual obligations. Enterprises, when making decisions, are mainly guided by the amount of production costs, which, however, is completely different from transaction costs in its essence (Table 9.2).

Table 9.2

Comparative characteristics of production and transaction costs

Transaction costs accompany decisions made at both the individual and collective levels. The costs of forming and maintaining a legal system are imposed on all members of society as a whole.

In many cases, the existence of high transaction costs at the level of society is explained by the desire to reduce their value for individual agents.

Transaction costs can be divided into fixed and variable. An enterprise can influence and manage only variable transaction costs.

One of the most important features of transaction costs is that they allow for significant economies of scale. There are fixed components in all types of transaction costs: when information is collected, it can be used by any number of potential sellers and buyers; contracts are standardized.

Part of the transaction costs can be considered preliminary, it refers to the moment before the transaction (collection of information), the other is at the time of its execution (negotiations and conclusion of the contract), the third is post-contractual in nature (security measures against opportunistic behavior, measures to restore violated property rights) (Fig. 9.6).

Rice. 9.6.

The costs of politicization. This general term it is possible to identify the costs that accompany decision-making within organizations, in particular, those operating as part of logistics system. These include the costs of collective decision-making and the costs of influence.

Decision making in the market and in the organization is different character. A market deal will only be entered into if both parties benefit from it. Anyone who believes that the deal is unprofitable for him has the right to refuse it. Voluntary consent of participants supply chain provides a minimum guarantee of the effectiveness of decisions made in the market, since their necessary condition is the expected welfare of the participants.

Difficulties and losses that arise when trying to reach mutual agreement serve as a source of search costs, negotiation costs, etc.

Within an organization, there is a different decision-making mechanism. In case of equality of participants, decisions are made by voting on a collective basis. Otherwise, the superiors make decisions that are binding on the subordinates. But in any case, there is no guarantee of effectiveness in the form of prior mutual agreement.

The value of the costs of collective decision-making depends on the level of optimality of the decision made by a simple majority of votes, on the composition of the participants and the divergence of their interests, as well as on the degree of coalition struggle. Protecting yourself from these cost-increasing factors is also costly.

Influence costs are associated with centralized decision making. They are caused by the state policy of regulation, which involves the introduction of burdensome taxes and quotas, as well as privileges that turn into sources of rents and quasi-rents. Economic agents spend a lot of effort to protect already received rents and create new ones, as well as to redistribute them in their favor.

Information search costs. Before a transaction is made, one must have information about where to find potential buyers or sellers of consumption goods or factors of production and what are the current prices. These costs are made up of the time and resources required to conduct the search, as well as the losses associated with incompleteness and imperfection of information. The search is conducted by both sellers and buyers in an extensive or intensive form. In the first case, the goal is to get acquainted with the maximum number of options, in the second - an in-depth study of one option until the marginal benefits are equal to the marginal costs of continuing the study.

Measurement costs. Any product or service is a set of characteristics, including logistical ones. In the act of exchange, only some of them are inevitably taken into account, and the accuracy of their assessment (quantification of information) is extremely approximate. Sometimes the qualities of a product of interest are not measurable at all.

Measurement costs increase with increasing accuracy requirements. From their value depends on who, when and with what degree of intensity the measurement will be made. When pre-measurement is difficult for both the seller and the buyer, share contracts are resorted to, which, as a rule, are set as a certain percentage of the sales amount. These costs can be reduced by having trademarks, warranty repair, etc.

Negotiation costs. The market requires the diversion of significant funds for negotiations on the terms of the exchange, for the conclusion and execution of contracts. The more participants in the transaction and the more complex its subject, the higher these costs. An additional source of them is losses due to unsuccessfully concluded, poorly executed and unreliably protected agreements.

The costs of protecting property rights. This category includes expenses for the maintenance of courts, arbitration, state bodies, the time and resources required to restore violated rights, as well as losses from their poor specification and unreliable protection. Any violation in the work of drugs must first be recorded, then assess its severity, ensure the capture or appearance of the violator, and impose a punishment. All this is far from free.

The costs of opportunistic behavior. The term "opportunistic behavior" was introduced by O. Williamson, the so-called dishonest behavior that violates the terms of the transaction or is aimed at obtaining unilateral benefits to the detriment of the partner. This includes various cases of lying, deception, idleness at work. Costs of this type are associated with the difficulty of accurately assessing the post-contract behavior of the other party to the transaction. In essence, these are the same measurement costs, only related not to the results, but to the process, not to the products and services transferred, but to the behavior of the counterparties of the transaction.

The costs of opportunistic behavior consist of the loss of efficiency associated with them, as well as the costs necessary to limit it.

Two main forms of opportunistic behavior, shirking and extortion, turned out to be the focus of attention of researchers in this area.

If the personal contribution of each agent to the overall result is measured with large errors, then the reward will be weakly related to the actual efficiency. Hence the negative incentives pushing for shirking. If information about the actual behavior of an agent is expensive, then, within certain limits, he can act uncontrollably, following his own interests, which do not coincide with the interests of the organization, i.e. it becomes possible to shirk within safe limits.

Shirking is a problem in a principal-agent relationship. This may incur agency costs. They are due to the fact that the agent is better aware of his true intentions and behavior. Information asymmetry develops under two conditions:

• 1) the activity of the agent is not amenable to direct observation of the principal;
• 2) the activity of the agent cannot be unambiguously assessed by its final results.

Since the interests of the agent and the principal may differ significantly, and the principal is not able to establish the fact that the agent has violated his obligations, it is necessary either to tighten supervision over the activities of the agent, or to introduce an incentive system that minimizes discrepancies in the interests of the agent and the principal.

However, the costs of reducing losses from opportunistic behavior can also be borne by agents. Such costs are called collateral costs (self-restraint costs). Agents voluntarily put themselves in tough conditions, guaranteeing the fulfillment of obligations either by depositing a cash collateral, or by inviting independent auditors, or by refusing to issue additional shares in favor of bonds or bank credit resources.

Each organizational form corresponds to its own, special configuration of transaction costs (Table 9.3). Thus, the market is relatively more efficient in terms of saving information costs, while administrative procedures reduce the cost of negotiating; within the organization there is a high risk of shirking, in relations between organizations - the threat of extortion, market transactions are accompanied by high costs for measuring the quality of the product)