What is Coase’s understanding of transaction costs in economic theory and history? Our argument in this paper is twofold, one theoretical and the other empirical. First, Coase regarded positive transaction costs as the beginning, not the end, of any analysis of market processes. From a Coasean perspective, positive transaction costs represent a profit opportunity for entrepreneurs to erode such transaction costs, namely by creating gains from trade through institutional innovation. We demonstrate the practical relevance of entrepreneurship for reducing transaction costs by revisiting the case of the lightship at the Nore, an entrepreneurial venture which had arisen to erode the transaction costs associated with regulation by Trinity House, the main lighthouse authority of England and Wales. By intervening into the entrepreneurial market process, Trinity House would pave the way for the nationalization of the entire English and Welsh lighthouse system. By connecting our theoretical contribution with an empirical application, we wish to illustrate that Coase’s theoretical understanding of transaction costs is inherently linked to an empirical analysis of market processes.

中文翻译：

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重新考虑了交易和交易成本：以英国灯塔系统为例

科斯对经济学理论和历史上的交易成本有什么理解？本文的论点是双重的，一种是理论上的，另一种是经验上的。首先，科斯将积极的交易成本视为对市场过程进行任何分析的开始而非结束。从科斯的角度来看，正交易成本代表了企业家侵蚀此类交易成本的获利机会，即通过制度创新从贸易中获得收益。通过回顾Nore的灯塔船案例，我们证明了企业家精神对于降低交易成本的实际意义，该公司是一家新兴企业，旨在侵蚀与英格兰和威尔士主要灯塔当局三位一体大厦的监管相关的交易成本。通过介入创业市场过程，三一大厦将为整个英语和威尔士灯塔系统的国有化铺平道路。通过将我们的理论贡献与经验应用联系起来，我们希望说明科斯对交易成本的理论理解与市场过程的经验分析具有内在联系。