Analysis of the community supported agriculture model in Brazil from the point of view of the transaction cost economic

The marketing relationship between farmers and consumers generates transaction costs, and these costs can be minimized through use of an appropriate governance structure. The main objective of this paper was to analyze the governance structure of Community Supported Agriculture in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, in order to identify whether it favors coordination between agents and promotes the reduction of transaction costs. The investigation followed a qualitative-quantitative approach according to the survey research method. For this, it was described the characteristics of the institutional environment in order to understand the aspects that delimit the behavior of the agents and that influence the structure of governance between the agents, as well as identifying the characteristics of transactions and agents (farmers and consumers), from the viewpoint of Transaction Cost Economics. The analysis of the characteristics of the agents showed that there is limited rationality in the perception of consumers; the characteristics of the transactions indicated a high level of locational, temporal, physical and brand specificity, in addition to the technological specificity in the farmers' perceptions; and the frequency of transactions is high. The assessed scenario shows that the specified governance structure is the hybrid - with the bilateral dependence between autonomous actors and, although adequate, requires improvements in reducing uncertainty among agents. This article brings scientific contributions by relating the theoretical approach of Transaction Cost Economics to the short channels of food production and consumption and, mainly, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, where these channels have grown in the last decade. Keywords: Commercialization channel. Institutional environment. Governance structure.

Breaking out of the Regulatory Delusion. The Ban to Surrogacy and the Foundations of European Constitutionalism

The transnational market of reproductive services puts a strain on western European States that refuse to acknowledge surrogacy contracts on public policy grounds. The cases decided so far rise three questions. First, under what circumstances foreign surrogacy judgements should be recognised? Second, what would be the constitutional repercussions of the recognition of these judgements? Third, how would it be like a legislation at once effective and respectful of fundamental rights of all parties involved? This Article analyses these questions and how they relate to each other. Based on a transaction-cost economic framework an argument is made that neither top-down, nor market-based regulatory solutions overcome the constitutional arguments that uphold the ban to surrogacy. An alternative approach to legal reform is considered, grounded on IPL and substantive domestic measures.

PROACTIVE MEASURES OF GOVERNMENTAL DEBT GUARANTEES TO FACILITATE PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS PROJECT

Governmental Debt Guarantees (GDGs) are often used to encourage involvement by promoters and financial institutions in Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) projects. However, even after demonstrating the bankability of a project and reducing debt cost, the success of the project may be prevented by the lack of long-term commitment from shareholders. Equity contributions by promoters in the project company may be recovered from earnings on short-term construction activities. Based on lesson learned from early PPP projects with GDG, the hold-up problem for government in the view of transaction cost economic (TCE) theory may worsen if the designed contractual structure does not adequately manage opportunistic behaviours from promoters. This study empirically examined the effects of a structured GDG mechanism with particular complementary measures applied in joint projects to develop the Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) stations. A GDG game model was then applied to bridge the theoretical gap based on the Taipei MRT experience. The analysis shows that requiring the promoter to provide sufficient equity and ensuring the commitment of the lender to provide the loan are the appropriate proactive measures. This study demonstrates its practical value for policy makers by combining case study, TCE and game theory in contractual issues.

Allocating Risks in Public-Private Partnerships Using a Transaction Cost Economic Approach: A Case Study

Public-private partnership (PPP) projects are often characterisedby increased complexity and uncertainty due to their idiosyncrasyin the management and delivery processes such as long-termlifecycle, incomplete contracting, and the multitude of stakeholders.An appropriate risk allocation is particularly crucial to achievingproject success. This paper focuses on the risk allocation in PPPprojects and argues that the transaction cost economics (TCE)theory can integrate the economics part, which is currently missing,into the risk management research. A TCE-based approach isproposed as a logical framework for allocating risks between publicand private sectors in PPP projects. A case study of the SouthernCross Station redevelopment project in Australia is presented toillustrate the approach. The allocation of important risks is putunder scrutiny. Lessons learnt are discussed and alternativemanagement approaches drawing on TCE theory are proposed.

Co-innovation: what are the success factors?

The problem we address in this paper is that in projects focusing on public-private cooperation to stimulate innovation in the Netherlands, initiatives often lack continuation after the study-phase. We extracted possible influencing variables from business and (transaction) cost economic theorizing, stakeholder and capability theory. Moreover, we used measures for classifying projects with respect to financial interdependencies between participants. We supposed that project characteristics influence managerial behavior to continue or stop. We studied 28 projects (20 supply chain projects and 8 biological product development projects). Our aim was to explore the barriers and success factors for these co-innovation projects: innovation as a cooperative effort between public sector/research institute and private organization(s). We derived data from project descriptions and performed semi-structured interviews with project informants. Critical to success appears to be ex ante commitment of all parties. Goal congruence, both at a personal and a company level, and proportionality of sharing in project results are of decisive importance to establish such commitment. Estimations about financial project results should be made in an early stage; they should be used as a basis for negotiations on the (re)distribution of costs and benefits, especially if the value added is disproportionally distributed over the participants. Ideally, project teams of co-innovation projects should bring in complementary capabilities: technical, marketing, financial and organizational. Project governance should therefore be organized in such a way that the knowledge gaps are filled in before kick-off.

Using a Tetradic Network Technique and a Transaction Cost Economic Analysis to illustrate an economic model for an open access medical journal

There is a crisis in scholarly publishing. The value of the scholarly information is frequently much less than the cost of providing that information. Consequently, libraries are suffering and scholars do not have access to information that they need. However, certain for-profit publishers and scientific societies are benefiting substantially from the current system. The Internet has demonstrated the potential to change this structure. The Budapest, Berlin and Bethesda initiatives show there is significant worldwide interest to replace the current controlled system with one that allows open access of scholarly information to anyone with Internet access. An examination of the scholarly publishing process is offered using a Tetradic Network Technique (TNT) and a Transaction Cost Economic (TCE) analysis as applied to a traditional subscription-based, print medical journal, Medical Physics, and a Web-based, open access medical journal, the Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics. The analysis identifies stakeholders and considers transaction and production costs. TCE analysis is performed between each of the following: Libraries, Scholars, Publishers and Societies, for a total of six transaction exchanges for both the traditional and the open access journal. This analysis allows costs to be compared more easily between the two types of journals, and provides the basis for a model online journal pro forma. Results demonstrate that while production costs remain approximately equivalent for the traditional and open access journal, total transaction costs are reduced by a factor of between 5 and 10 for the open access journal. While the cost of producing an eight-page article in a traditional medical journal is approximately US$2500, the cost of publishing the same article in an open access journal is less than US$500. Recommendations are offered that illustrate how an open access online journal may be produced by a university for approximately the cost of several library print journal subscriptions and physical storage of the printed material. Universities may therefore benefit through greater involvement with the scholarly publishing process. There are several considerations and recommendations that one may draw from this investigation. Universities pay for scholarly research, and then pay again to obtain access to published results. University libraries, always a significant cost center, are now in financial crisis. Scientific societies and large publishers gain under the traditional scholarly publication model. The copyright is essential; the one that holds the copyright holds the power in scholarly publishing. Modern open access initiatives state that scholars should retain copyright and publish online. Universities should require promotion and tenure committees to give equal weight to open access publications. Universities should go into the publishing business with scientific societies and control dissemination of scholarly knowledge for the public good.