계약경제이론의 발전과 한국농식품부문에의 적용에 관한 연구 (The Development of Contract Economics and Its Applications to Korean Agro-Food Sector)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국식품유통학회
· 수록지 정보 : 식품유통연구 / 25권 / 4호 / 1 ~ 28페이지
· 저자명 : 장종익

초록

This paper surveys literature on contract theories and their empirical applications to the agro-food sector in the US and European countries and then draws implications to research on Korean agro-food value chain and its education program. Recent development of contract theories in economics has helped enhance our understanding of the exact nature of various impediments associated with economic coordination and the functioning of various forms and institutional devices to organize transactions. Normative agency theory, property-rights theory, transaction cost theory, measurement cost theory, and positive agency theory are reviewed with regard to its main assumptions, focal points, and implications. Normative agency theory emphasizes the optimal incentive compensation and performance evaluation serving to minimize asymmetric information costs, which are determined based on agents’ risk preferences or cost functions and the measurement characteristics of tasks delegated while transaction cost theory focuses on how economic agents choose a particular governance form and design the internal structure of contracts in a way to minimize transaction costs and maximize mutual gains from trade given attributes of the transaction. Property-rights theory highlights ownership effects on organizational form choice, arguing that complementary assets should be under unified ownership. Measurement cost theory focuses on economic traders’ opportunistic behavior by exploiting measurement errors and thereby explains how market arrangements are developed to reduce the losses from the exploitation of measurement errors. Positive agency theory emphasizes the role of knowledge and information in determining the allocation of decision rights among parties in a way to optimally produce products and service.
Although each theory emphasizes different aspects of various contract problems and differs in terms of the degree of theory formalization, understanding of both competing and complementary position of the five theories is beneficial to comprehensively explain contracting practices in reality. From this standpoint, the paper selectively reviews empirical contract literature on the agro-food sector which have recently been burgeoning in the U.S. and European countries. Normative or positive agency theory-based empirical studies have looked at incentive structures for quality；the risk and other consequences of shift in input and output ownership in livestock production contracts；and the allocation of decision rights over production, harvest and delivery. In contrast, transaction cost theory or measurement cost theory-based empirical literature has focused on the contract enforcement mechanism, the choice of contracts, and the effects of ownership structure on contract design. Finally, the paper discusses potential benefits from the applications of contract theories to research on existing marketing and production contract practices in Korea in particular and the introduction of contract economics to agribusiness education program in general. Contract theories would play a significant role to deepen and enlarge future research on vertical coordination between farmers and processors or retailers, providing valuable insights to better understand the economic rationale and regularities underlying newly emerging organizational forms as well as the capabilities and limitations of traditional auction markets and government or cooperatives-initiated contract production. Contract economics would also considerably contribute to not only enhancing the quality but also expanding the scope, of the existing agribusiness education program in Korea, emphasizing the nature of mutuality in every transactions and offering basic economic concepts and analytical frameworks for transactors' best strategy for forms and structures to organize transactions in a way to maximize mutual gains from exchange, which is faced by all the players at the every stages in the agro-food value chain.

영어초록

This paper surveys literature on contract theories and their empirical applications to the agro-food sector in the US and European countries and then draws implications to research on Korean agro-food value chain and its education program. Recent development of contract theories in economics has helped enhance our understanding of the exact nature of various impediments associated with economic coordination and the functioning of various forms and institutional devices to organize transactions. Normative agency theory, property-rights theory, transaction cost theory, measurement cost theory, and positive agency theory are reviewed with regard to its main assumptions, focal points, and implications. Normative agency theory emphasizes the optimal incentive compensation and performance evaluation serving to minimize asymmetric information costs, which are determined based on agents’ risk preferences or cost functions and the measurement characteristics of tasks delegated while transaction cost theory focuses on how economic agents choose a particular governance form and design the internal structure of contracts in a way to minimize transaction costs and maximize mutual gains from trade given attributes of the transaction. Property-rights theory highlights ownership effects on organizational form choice, arguing that complementary assets should be under unified ownership. Measurement cost theory focuses on economic traders’ opportunistic behavior by exploiting measurement errors and thereby explains how market arrangements are developed to reduce the losses from the exploitation of measurement errors. Positive agency theory emphasizes the role of knowledge and information in determining the allocation of decision rights among parties in a way to optimally produce products and service.
Although each theory emphasizes different aspects of various contract problems and differs in terms of the degree of theory formalization, understanding of both competing and complementary position of the five theories is beneficial to comprehensively explain contracting practices in reality. From this standpoint, the paper selectively reviews empirical contract literature on the agro-food sector which have recently been burgeoning in the U.S. and European countries. Normative or positive agency theory-based empirical studies have looked at incentive structures for quality；the risk and other consequences of shift in input and output ownership in livestock production contracts；and the allocation of decision rights over production, harvest and delivery. In contrast, transaction cost theory or measurement cost theory-based empirical literature has focused on the contract enforcement mechanism, the choice of contracts, and the effects of ownership structure on contract design. Finally, the paper discusses potential benefits from the applications of contract theories to research on existing marketing and production contract practices in Korea in particular and the introduction of contract economics to agribusiness education program in general. Contract theories would play a significant role to deepen and enlarge future research on vertical coordination between farmers and processors or retailers, providing valuable insights to better understand the economic rationale and regularities underlying newly emerging organizational forms as well as the capabilities and limitations of traditional auction markets and government or cooperatives-initiated contract production. Contract economics would also considerably contribute to not only enhancing the quality but also expanding the scope, of the existing agribusiness education program in Korea, emphasizing the nature of mutuality in every transactions and offering basic economic concepts and analytical frameworks for transactors' best strategy for forms and structures to organize transactions in a way to maximize mutual gains from exchange, which is faced by all the players at the every stages in the agro-food value chain.

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