格式合同的交易成本经济学分析

Economics Analysis of Standard Form Contract' s Transaction Cost

格式合同作为规模经济和专业化生产的产物,产生并最先运用于垄断成份较重的行业,而后经历扩展,在日常经济生活和交易活动中被普遍使用。已有的关于格式合同文献多从法律的角度,也偶有从经济学的角度对格式合同进行分析,但它们都对格式合同中交易成本因素着墨不多。现代经济分析中,交易成本概念作为一种技术概念,被用于度量与缔约相关的各种成本(搜寻信息成本、缔约成本、监督履约成本);另一方面,交易成本概念作为一种解释工具,被用于诠释经济现象和经济变革。①②本文以交易成本理论为工具,对格式合同进行了微观剖析,指出格式合同的本质和生命在于节约缔约当事人的交易成本,从而节约社会总交易成本,以达到资源的优化配置;同时,也正因为格式合同追求节约交易成本的本质有可能带来社会交易成本的增加而使其成为行政机关、自律团体和法律规制的对象。

Standard form contract is the product of scale economy and specialized production which was formed and used firstly in the monopolized fields and then used widely in daily economic lives and exchanges after its development.The present documents about standard form contract have been analyzed mainly from viewpoints of the law or the economy,but transaction cost of standard form contracts has not been disculssed more.In modern analyses of economics,on one hand,transaction cost is regarded as a technical concept and used to measure all costs involving contracts (searching and information costs,contracts cost and supervision cost);on the other hand,transaction cost is looked as an explanation tool and used to explain economic phenomenon and reformation.This article,uses the theory of transaction cost to make a micro-analysis about standard form contracts,and puts forward the life and essential characters of form contracts are to save the transaction cost of parties and the whole social transaction cost to make resource arrangement superior.In the end,this author gives some reasons for administration and self-control groups to regulate standard form contracts.