Transactional Mechanism of Territorial Administration: Conceptualisation and Systematization of Elements

Abstract

The concept of transaction expenses developed by R. Coase allows to consider functioning of economy and its agents from the information viewpoint. This viewpoint implies that information exchange between agents and the urge to overcome information incompleteness start playing the crucial role. Transaction expenses are information exchange costs for the purpose of elimination (reduction) of its incompleteness and the related uncertainty. R. Coase showed that creation and the size of firms are closely connected with the urge to minimize transaction expenses. Traditionally transaction expenses are associated with functioning of firms, however, the state actively participates in economy, for example, through formation of tax policy. Besides, financing of the public benefits takes place on the basis of collective decisions. But collective character of the decision causes interest, though smaller in comparison with the private choice, in the maximum efficiency of the decision. It is ensured by two factors: firstly, the position of an individual is not of great importance at collective decision-making; secondly, an individual is responsible for a small part of benefits and expenses which are formed in the course of decision implementation. The article deals with the concept of transaction costs, and systematically occurring types of transaction costs in the following groups: search information costы, the cost of negotiating, measuring costs, the costs of specification and protection of property rights, the costs of opportunistic behavior, the cost of "politicizing", the costs of collective decisionmaking, influence costs. The authors propose a model of transaction mechanism of territorial administration, which includes the following elements: economic entities; a goal determined by system of indicators; methods; instruments; channels; forms of target use; landmark feedback on the system; subject to the experience stage of modernization; criteria system of impact on the region; database; analysis; diagnosis; assessment of progress and prospects; correction of development; interaction with the environment.