“诺思第二悖论”及其新破解

The Second North Paradox and Its New Solution

在新制度经济学家看来,制度的一个重要作用是降低作为经济运行的"摩擦力"的交易费用。理论上,交易费用会随着一国制度的进步和完善而降低。但是,据瓦利斯和诺思测算,美国自1 870年到1 970年的1 00年间总量交易费用占GNP的比例不仅没有降低,反而越来越高了。这种理论(随着制度的进步交易费用应该越来越低)与实际(测量到总量交易费用越来越高)的矛盾被称之为"诺思第二悖论"。瓦利斯和诺思测量到的总量交易费用并非交易费用的全部,表面上测量到的总量交易费用上升了,但"理论上"的总量交易费用是下降的,即是说,随着制度的进步,不仅每笔交易的交易费用下降了,理论上的总量交易费用也是下降的,所谓"诺思第二悖论"是不存在的。

In the eyes of new institutional economists, one of an important functions of the institution is to lower the transaction costs serving as the ＂friction＂ during the economic operation. In theory, transaction costs will be reduced along with the advancement and improvement of the institution of one country. However, according to Wallis and North （1986）＇ s estimation, in the last 100 years from 1870 to 1970, rather than declining, the ratio of total transaction costs in GNP in United States was getting higher and higher. The contradiction between the theory （along with institutional progress, the transaction costs should be lower and lower） and the reality （ the measured total trans- action costs are getting higher and higher） is called ＂the Second North Paradox＂ . This paper argues that the total transaction costs measured by ,Wallis and North are not the entire transaction costs. On the surface, the measured amount of total transaction costs are rising, but in fact, the ＂theoretical＂ total transaction costs are falling, that is, along with the institutional progress, not only the transaction costs per transaction are getting down, the theoretical total transaction costs are falling too, therefore, the so-called ＂the Second North Paradox＂ does not exist at all.