Ex ante costs

(before the conclusion of the agreement)

Ex post costs

(after the conclusion of the agreement)

Information search costs: costs of finding information about a potential partner and market situation; losses due to incompleteness and imperfection of the information received.

The costs of monitoring and preventing opportunism: the costs of monitoring the compliance with the terms of the agreement and preventing opportunism (evasion of these terms).

Negotiation costs: the costs of negotiating the terms of the exchange and the choice of the form of the agreement.

The costs of specification and protection of property rights: the costs of arbitration; the costs of time and resources required to restore the rights violated during the performance of the contract.

Shortcomings of measurement: costs required to measure the quality of the goods and services that make up the content of the agreement

Third party protection costs: costs of protection from third party claims for part of the beneficial effect of the transaction

Third party protection costs: costs of protection from third party claims for part of the beneficial effect of the transaction