archive of the former site EconWPA.wustl.edu

Please do not link or reference this page. Use one of the following URLs:
ideas.repec.org as http://ideas.repec.org/p/wpa/wuwpeh/9411006.html
econpapers.repec.org as http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/wpawuwpeh/9411006.htm

TRANSACTION COSTS THROUGH TIME

 
Paper:ewp-eh/9411006
From:    (Douglas North) 
Date: Fri, 25 Nov 1994 15:42:36 -0600 (CST)

Abstract:
An economic definition of transaction costs are the costs of measuring what is being exchanged and enforcing agreements. In the larger context of societal evolution they are all the costs involved in human interaction over time. It is this larger context that I wish to explore in this essay. The concept is a close kin to the notion of social capital advanced by James Coleman (1990) and applied imaginatively to studying the differential patterns of Italian regional development by Robert Putnam in Making Democracy Work (1993). This essay, therefore, is a study in economic history which focuses on the costs of human coordination and cooperation through time which I regard as the key dilemma of societies past, present and future.

Postscript files:(viewing .ps)
      archive: 9411006.ps  or 9411006.ps.gz  is 19049 bytes, 8-23-97.
Acrobat pdf files:(viewing .pdf)
      archive: 9411006.pdf  is 26499 bytes, 1-21-95, or 9411006.pdf.gz 
Access statistics for this paper at LogEc which is a part of the RePEc project as was/is EconWPA.
Translate to another language with babel.altavista.com EconWPA reference ewp-eh/9411006
RePEc reference RePEc:wpa:wuwpeh:9411006 send e-mail to

EconWPA began as a conversation between Bob Parks and Larry Blume on January 28, 1993. I located Paul Ginsparg's archive (then xxx.lanl.gov) and he graciously installed his software on a Sun Sparc system which was supporting the department of economics email and computation. EconWPA began accepting papers July 1, 1993 and had ftp, email, gopher and web interfaces. The web interface for submissions was engineered into existence in July 1995. A complete and catastrophic machine failure in 1999 caused the loss of EconWPA's email new paper announcment service at which time there were over 15,000 subscriptions with over 8,000 unique email addresses.

In 2005, Arts and Sciences commandeered the computing services that I had provided to the Department of Economics since 1987. Some might say that the department was sold out, others would (erroneously) claim that centralization is efficient, and still others would claim that I have few marketing skills.

I was told that I could keep operating EconWPA (as well as many other services including rfe.wustl.edu, barnett.wustl.edu, and three RePEc servers) but I would receive no support (hardware, software, or anthing else) and (as had been the case) no compensation. At that point, given the apparent low valuation of my activities by the department, and university, it made no sense for me to continue operating EconWPA or other services.

Thanks to all who have supported EconWPA in the past.

A Chinese curse states May you live in intersting times. I have. Bob Parks - Jan 2006