The Role of Transaction Costs in Douglass North’s Understanding of the Process of Change in Economic History

Author(s):  
Rosolino Candela
2005 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 77-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
M S Sriram

In recent times, microfinance has emerged as a major innovation in the rural financial marketplace. Microfinance largely addresses the issue of access to financial services. In trying to understand the innovation of microfinance and how it has proved to be effective, the author looks at certain design features of microfinance. He first starts by identifying the need for financial service institutions which is basically to bridge the gap between the need for financial services across time, geographies, and risk profiles. In providing services that bridge this gap, formal institutions have limited access to authentic information both in terms of transaction history and expected behaviour and, therefore, resort to seeking excessive information thereby adding to the transaction costs. The innovation in microfinance has been largely to bridge this gap through a series of trustbased surrogates that take the transaction-related risks to the people who have the information — the community through measures of social collateral. In this paper, the author attempts to examine the trajectory of institutional intermediation in the rural areas, particularly with the poor and how it has evolved over a period of time. It identifies a systematic breach of trust as one of the major problems with the institutional interventions in the area of providing financial services to the poor and argues that microfinance uses trust as an effective mechanism to address one of the issues of imperfect information in financial transactions. The paper also distinguishes between the different models of microfinance and identifies which of these models use trust in a positivist frame and as a coercive mechanism. The specific objectives of the paper are to: Superimpose the role of trust in various types of exchanges and see how it impacts the effectiveness of repeated transactions. While greater access to information fosters trust and thus helps social networks to reduce transaction costs, there could be limits to which exchanges could solely depend on networks and trust. Look at the frontiers where mutual trust cannot work as a surrogate for lower appraisal costs. Use an example in the Canadian context and see how an entity that started on the basis of social networks and trust had to morph into using the techniques used by other formal nonneighbourhood institutions as it grew in size and went beyond a threshold. Using the Canadian example, the author argues that as the transactions get sophisticated, it is possible to achieve what informal networks have achieved through the creative use of information technology. While we find that the role of trust both in the positivist and the coercive frame does provide some interesting insights into how exchanges with the poor could be managed, there still could be breaches in the assumptions. This paper identifies the conditions under which the breaches could possibly happen and also speculates on the effect of such breaches.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 101
Author(s):  
Tabrani ZA

<p>Islam as a religion of rahmatan li al'alamin, very much its contribution to the national development which is oriented to the whole human development. The presence of religion is always accompanied by "two faces". On the one hand, inherently religion has an identity that is exclusive, particularistic, and primordial. At the same time, however, it is also rich in inclusive, Universalist and transcending identities. In its role as a directive system, religion is placed as the main reference in the process of change. Religion will serve as a supreme morality that provides the basis and strength of the society's spiritual elite as they dialectics with change. Likewise as a defensive system, religion becomes a kind of resistance force for society when it is in an increasingly complex circle of life issues amid the rapid flow of change. Islamic education as agents of social change that is in the atmosphere of modernization and globalization today is required to be able to play its role dynamically and proactively, both at the theoretical and practical intellectual level. Islamic education is not just a process of cultivating moral values to fortify itself from the negative excesses of globalization. But the most important thing is how the moral values that have been invested in Islamic education are able to act as a liberating force from the crush of poverty, ignorance and socio-cultural and economic backwardness. This paper aims to explore the role of Islamic education in public social education which is the main foundation of a nation's development.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene Boldt

This study describes the recovery experiences of persons who have been found not criminally responsible on account of a mental disorder (NCRMD). A qualitative descriptive methodology was used to elicit the recovery experiences of five participants. The overarching theme that arose from the data was ‘Experiencing and understanding recovery in the forensic mental health system (FMHS) as a dynamic process of change,’ and the major themes that emerged out of the overarching theme are: ‘Recovering in the FMHS,’ ‘the Critical Role of Medication,’ ‘the Significance of Relationships,’ ‘the Importance of Helping Yourself,’ and ‘Navigating Challenges.’ The results of this inquiry reveal that the participants’ experiences of recovery are greatly influenced by their involvement in the FMHS. This study offers a preliminary understanding of how recovery is experienced by NCRMD clients who reside in the community and suggests implications for clinical practice and education, as well as future research and theory.


2016 ◽  
pp. 5-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Polterovich

T is proposed in the article to distinguish between two types of collaboration: a positive (not directed against third parties) and a negative one. I consider the hypothesis that in the process of social development, transaction costs ratio of the three main types of coordination - competition, power, and collaboration - is changing in favor of the latter. The mechanisms responsible for the implementation of this tendency are studied, and an attempt to explain its nonmonotonicity is made. It is shown that the strengthening role of positive collaboration is largely explained by cultural changes: the enhance of tolerance culture, the spread of cosmopolitanism and altruism, increasing planning horizon as well as trust radius. I demonstrate the importance of the institutions of positive collaboration in the process of catchingup development; it is shown that shock reforms could lead to the formation of negative collaboration mechanisms. For the further development of these ideas, a program of interdisciplinary researches is outlined.


Author(s):  
Miguel D. Ramirez

This paper analyzes the very important notion of capital from a Marxian perspective as opposed to a neoclassical one. It is argued that when capital is viewed as a historically determined social process (relation), rather than as a thing or a col-lection of things, it tends to assume certain specific forms more often than others depending on the particular stage of economic history. Capital thus refers simulta-neously to social relations and to things. Given this frame of reference, notions such as money and property capital are more easily accommodated and conse-quently are not written off as financial or fictitious capital - not real capital because they produce nothing. The paper also focuses on Marx's important analy-sis of the time of production and the turnover of capital in terms of the production of surplus-value (profit). It then examines Marx's equally important and prescient analysis of how the turnover speed of capital is affected by the time of circulation of commodities (the realization of surplus-value) and the growing use of credit (in its various forms) in the capitalist system. Finally, the paper turns its attention to the economic role of time as it relates to interest - bearing capital - one whose clear comprehension rests on viewing capital as a social construct.


Author(s):  
Samira Nuhanovic-Ribic ◽  
Ermanno C. Tortia ◽  
Vladislav Valentinov

Over the last decades, agricultural co-operatives grew substantially in most developed and developing countries, often reaching dominant market positions. We inquire into the economic mechanism behind this growth, by elaborating on the relation between co-operative identity and co-operative benefits. We highlight the ability of agricultural co-operatives to co-ordinate large-scale production, to monitor work contributions and product quality, and to ensure economic independence of farmer members. Following the two principal streams in the economic literature, we distinguish between the conceptions of agricultural co-operatives as units of vertical integration and as firms characterized by common governance of collective entrepreneurial action and ability to reduce transaction costs and economic risk. We describe the financial and governance limitations of agricultural co-operatives while taking account of new co-operative models presenting institutional tools introduced to overcome these limitations. We conclude by suggesting directions for enhancing the role of co-operatives in agricultural and rural development.


2018 ◽  
pp. 55-89
Author(s):  
Şevket Pamuk

This chapter looks at the role of institutions in economic development and the evolution of Ottoman institutions before the nineteenth century. It argues that while institutions are not the only things that matter, it is essential to examine their role in order to understand Turkey's experience with economic growth and human development during the last two centuries. The economics and economic history literature has been making a related and important distinction between the proximate and deeper sources of economic growth. The proximate causes refer to the contributions made by the increases in inputs, land, labor, and capital and the productivity increases. The deeper causes refer to the social, political, and economic environment as well as the historical causes that influence the rate at which inputs and productivity grow.


2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-146
Author(s):  
Andreas Langenohl

Abstract Thomas Piketty’s Capital and Ideology has been written with the intention to offer lessons from the historical trajectory of economic redistribution in societies the world over. Thereby, the book suggests learning from the political-economic history of ‘social-democratic’ policies and societal arrangements. While the data presented speak to the plausibility of looking at social democracy, as understood by Piketty, as an archive for learning about the effects of redistribution mechanisms, I argue that the book, or future interventions might profit from integrating alternative archives. On the one hand, its current line of argumentation tends to underestimate the significance of power relations in the international political economy that continued after formal decolonization, and thus form the flip side of social democracy’s success in Europe and North America. On the other hand, the role of the polity might be imagined in a different and more empowering way, not just-as in Piketty-as an elite-liberal democratic governance institution; for instance, it would be interesting to explore the archive of the French solidaristes movement more deeply than Piketty does, as well as much more recent interventions in economic anthropology that deal with ‘economic citizenship’ in the Global South.


Author(s):  
Jane Humphries

This chapter examines the role of apprenticeship in the British Industrial Revolution. The apprenticeship system contributed in four ways. First, it provided training of necessary skills in the expanding area of employment and newer sectors. Second, it promoted efficient training among masters and men. Third, it reduced the transaction costs involved in transferring resources from agriculture to non-agriculture and facilitated the expansion of sectors which promoted trade and commerce. Finally, apprenticeship saved poor children from social exclusion and enabled them to become more productive adults. The chapter also suggests that the apprenticeship system also created a structure of contract enforcement which ensured that both masters and trainees would derive the benefits from human capital accumulation.


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