The problem of achieving zero transaction costs in the Coase's theorem

The article is devoted to the analysis of R. Coase's theorems, formulated by the Nobel laureate J. Stigler, and the substantiation of the necessity and possibility of its application in the current and subsequent development of mankind. The central element of R. Coase's theorem is transaction costs, on the one hand, which are an inalienable and insurmountable obstacle on the way to a perfect market (according to R. Coase), on the other hand, a way to achieve it while overcoming them (according to J. Stigler). An analogy is drawn between transaction costs in economics and the forces of friction in physics, to eliminate which the efforts of individual societies were directed throughout the development of human civilization. Both material transaction costs and social (antihumanistic) costs are distinguished, which are associated with the general underdevelopment and closedness of societies to innovations and the manifestation of individual initiative. It is concluded that there is a historical trend towards a decrease in unit transaction costs (while maintaining the level of total transaction costs), in which the possibility of implementing an idea favorably perceived by effective market demand becomes more and more accessible. In this regard, the approach of mankind to a perfect market is not an unattainable dream, but the expected reality of the institutional development of the economy in the presence of an appropriate target setting.