交易成本的實證與檢驗─以交易成本經濟學為例

The Empiricalization of the Transaction Cost Economics

簡元佑(Yuan-You Jian)

指導教授 ： 趙相科

國立清華大學/科技管理學院/經濟學系/碩士(2016年)

摘要

羅納德.寇斯在〈廠商的本質〉一文中以交易成本的概念解釋了廠商為何會選 擇以自製或採購的方式取得生產所需的投入,然而該文在〈社會成本的問題〉 發表前卻一直不受重視。本文從方法論的角度出發,認為 Coase (1937, 1960)缺 乏對於交易成本的操作性論述,以至於經濟學者難以從其作品衍生實證研究, 而奧利弗.威廉森透過操作化交易成本提供檢驗該命題的理論架構,進而衍生 許多實證研究。此外,筆者進一步檢驗交易成本理論對於自製與採購決策的實 證研究,發現資產專用性的定義分歧導致在建構其測量變數時無法充分反映理 論定義的內涵。甚者,交易成本理論面臨了不充分決定論的問題,其核心命題 能夠以其他競爭理論的觀點去解釋,以至於這類實證無法充分決定交易成本理 論的可信度,這些結果可作為未來交易成本理論實證應加強的方向。

關鍵字

寇斯 ； 威廉森 ； 交易成本 ； 交易成本理論 ； 垂直整合 ； 自製與採購決策 ； 實證 ； 操作主義 ； 不充分決定論

並列摘要

In his seminar paper “The Nature of the Firms”, Ronald Coase explains that the boundary of the firms is determined by transaction cost. However, the influence of this paper was not recognized until the publication of “The Problem of Social Cost”. This thesis addresses the lack of operationalization in transaction cost is the reason why this “The Nature of the Firms” was “much cited, but little use”. With operationalizing transaction cost, Transaction Cost Economics (TCE), established by Oliver. E. Williamson, has been successful in inspiring empirical examinations on TCE. Moreover, this thesis examines the empirical works of TCE, and finds that the concept of asset specificity is so ambiguous that the construct of asset specificity, which used in these empirical works, cannot reflect all meaning in TCE. Moreover, these empirical works suffer from the problem of underdetermination. The core proposition tested in these works can be explained well by different competing the theory of the firms, which weakens the plausibility of TCE’s explanation.

並列關鍵字

Coase ； Williamson ； transaction cost ； Transaction Cost Economics ； vertical integration ； make-or-buy decision ； empirical ； operationalism ； underdetermination

參考文獻

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