THE ROLE OF TRANSACTION COST ECONOMICS IN THE GROWING PLURALITY OF MODERN ECONOMICS (Rozwój ekonomii kosztów tranzakcyjnych a wzrost róznorodnosci wspólczesnej ekonomii)

The article describes the process of the growing plurality of modern economics. It is argued that one of the main stimuli of that change was the growing popularity of transaction cost economics which eased the entry into mainstream economics of what previously had been present only in heterodox economics. After providing a definition of theoretical plurality it is shown that the number of elements in both economic explanans and explanandum has substantially increased. What follows is an inquiry into the ways in which the idea of transaction costs entered mainstream economics. Subsequently, it is claimed that transaction cost economics as put forward by Oliver Williamson served as a theoretical bridge between mainstream economics and heterodoxy. Finally, some methodological insights on the possible interplay between plurality and pluralism in economics are offered.