MENSURAÇÃO E ANÁLISE DE CUSTOS DE TRANSAÇÃO ARCADOS POR PRODUTORES DE LEITE NOS MERCADOS FORMAL E INFORMAL DA REGIÃO DE SÃO CARLOS, SP

The analysis and measurement of production and transaction costs is an important tool in guiding decisions and in comprehendingthe behavior of the agents in a particular institutional environment. Although production costs have been widely studied in theliterature, transaction costs have not been so extensively analyzed, especially empirically. Based on 125 questionnaires and ontheoretical review, this work presents an analysis and a measurement of the transaction costs for two groups of rural producersin the region of São Carlos, in São Paulo state. The groups were defined using cluster analysis, considering the amount of milksold in the informal market as the analysis variable. The theoretical reference includes the New Institutional Economics andTransaction Cost Economics theories. It was concluded that, although transaction costs are low for both groups, they are relativelyhigher for producers inserted mainly in the informal market than for producers inserted in the formal market. Moreover, a smallnumber of formal contracts were observed, which can be explained by the high frequency of transactions and the consequentestablishment of reliability.