The Theory of Transaction Costs and Contractual Relations: A Study of the Cooperativism System in the Cattle Raising of Espírito Santo State - Brazil
Name: NADIA DELARMELINA
Publication date: 30/05/2014
Advisor:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| ALEXANDRE OTTONI TEATINI SALLES | Advisor * |
Examining board:
| Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| ALEXANDRE OTTONI TEATINI SALLES | Advisor * |
| ROBSON ANTONIO GRASSI | Internal Examiner * |
Summary: This Dissertation aims to study how the contractual relationships are established between the agricultural cooperatives of the Espírito Santo and how these relations allow a transaction costs reduction. The basic motivation, therefore, is to help them to structure the governance of their transactions. To achieve these objectives, the Dissertation starts with a literature review of the Transaction Cost Theory, approaching its theoretical principles. Another important debate for the research refers to the emergence of the cooperative system, its concept and its way of functioning. The connection established between these two issues is important to understand the nature of cooperatives, especially in his concept of the firm (or institution) that seeks to organize trade (goods and/or services) efficiently. The study, therefore, seeks also to understand what structures these associations adopt to conduct their transactions, proposing alternative structures to reduce transaction costs efficiently and increase expected returns by producers. The study reveals that the behavior of several cooperatives is different from proposed by the TCT. However, this does not mean that the results obtained this way are inefficient. In some of these cases, this prevents them to reduce transaction costs in the most efficient way. In others, the practices that conflict with the proposed TCT (for idiosyncratic, institutional, structural, and even organizational reasons) can bring auspicious results.
