Abstract Transaction cost is a basic concept of economics, but this concept is rather ambiguous. In order to eliminate this ambiguity, we stratify and categorize the concept into several sorts of definition which have different confines and width from each other. The relationship between these concepts is similar to Matryoshka (Russian doll). From the generalized transaction cost (Wuchang Zhang) to the cost of the institution (Arrow), there are also transaction costs on the market and the cost of enterprise management (Coase,et al.). Based on the above analysis, we put forward a group of concepts instead of a single concept, with great significance to clarify this basic concept (a group of concepts, actually) in economics.
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Received: 13 January 2012
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