Problems of transaction costs’ measurement

There are two approaches to transaction costs measuring: ordinal and cardinal. Cardinal approach deals with quantitative characteristics of transaction costs but is connected with some issues. The aim of the work is to determine possible ways of solving issues arising from cardinal approach employment in case of transaction costs’ measurement. The goals of the work are to define issues arising from cardinal approach usage; to determine means of transaction costs measuring applicable for the solution of defined issues; to determine cardinal approach’s scope. The methodology is based on transaction costs theory, the concept of decision-making incorporating total costs and the game theory. The author concludes that transaction costs’ measuring is connected with the following issues: costs’ probabilistic nature, their implicit form, total costs’ reflection in book-keeping and frequently in management accounts, information asymmetry. To solve these issues it is necessary to use such methods as: transaction costs’ expectation value; Laplace, Bayes, Hurwitz criterions; reserves’, imputed costs’, opportunity costs’ evaluation; selective survey work and expansion of its results on all objects; expert opinion. It seems that the scope of cardinal approach is limited by the aims that can be achieved only with quantitative characteristics of transaction costs. It is necessary to use such transaction costs’ measuring approach that can show maximum difference between expected results and costs of measuring.