Transaction Costs and the Political Economy of Trade Policy
The third paper provides a transaction cost explanation to the pattern of industrial expansion in the ready-made garment sector of Bangladesh. It shows how economic policies through their effect on property rights can change transaction cost and thereby affect economic outcome. The paper argued that low transaction cost is the cause of the observed predominantly horizontal industrial expansion in the ready-made garment sector of Bangladesh. It also showed how economic policies at different stages affected the expansion pattern by changing the transaction cost of operation in this sector. The paper also explains why a similar expansion did not take place in the linkage industries and how the scope of post contractual opportunism and the requirement of transaction specific assets play the key roles in this regard.
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign