Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/47727

KEYWORDS : Transaction Cost Economics;Operationalization;Instrumentalism;Realism in Assumptions;Calculativeness;Opportunity Cost

The work of Ronald H. Coase is often referred to as an original yet primitive version of Williamson's transaction cost economics. However, if we examine both author's seminal texts, Coase's argument differs in noteworthy respects from Williamson's transaction cost economics. Tracing the short history of transaction cost economics, this study clarifies three conflicting characteristics of Williamson's and Coase's versions of transaction cost economics: instrumentalist vs. realistic methodologies, calculative vs. realistic views of economic agents, and the notion of transaction cost as an analytical device vs. being a real cost for agents.