We argue that at the level of the national economy, an import quota transforms national welfare in the form of government revenues and consumer surplus into producer surplus to the domestic monopolist protected by the quota. An import quota confers substantial market power to the local...

This paper supports the view expressed by other authors that Ronald Coase’s ideas are often misrepresented in the academic world. It restates some of Coase’s main findings with special emphasis on their relevance to processes taking place in Eastern Europe. The goal of this paper is to...

The modern firm is discussed from the viewpoint of R. Cose’s theory of transaction costs. The issue of management and price mechanism as alternative methods of allocating economic resources is analyzed. The company growth limits are defined and the nature of transaction costs is given,...

The state plays a role in reducing the transaction costs of an economic system. While the scholarly focus seems to be on the indirect role of the state through the legal system and the definition and enforcement of property rights, economists seem to overlook the direct role the state has to...

Using a simple job market equilibrium model we study the relationship between work effort and monitoring by firms. Some other determinants of work effort investigated include the educational level of the worker, the minimum or start-up salary as well as the economic conjuncture. As common logic...

Economic theory provides various explanations for vertical integration but transaction costs seem to be a major determinant of backward, forward and lateral integration. The paper studies integration trends in the newly emerging Bulgarian pharmaceutical sector, seeking transaction cost...

Our paper studies the causes of poverty from the perspective of job search. We show that poor people remain poor because they have less time and initial endowment to search for a better job. Initial endowment is key to successful job search, as one can afford not to work and search longer for a...