J.R. Commons vs. O.E. Williamson – dwie szkoły instytucjonalne i ich dorobek z punktu widzenia ekonomiki rynku pracy

The article focuses on presentation of ideas of institutions and transaction costs by original and new institutional economics with particular emphasis on J.R. Commons’s and O.E. Williamson’s views in terms of the economics of the labor market. Institutional economics assume the interaction between people and organizations and examine the rules of this interaction. It proves that the economic analysis should be interdisciplinary and focus on social, cultural, political, historical and other aspects. This is especially important for the analysis of the modern labor market, where cultural factors play a major role. The analysis of institutions (formal and informal) that determine the behavior of economic agents in the labor market and the study of the process of the transaction and the factors that influence the transaction costs may be the key to understand today’s labor market problems. The paper describes the differences of original and new institutional economics, presents the concept of institution, transaction and transaction costs by J.R. Commons and O.E. Williamson, and finally identifies the components of their achievements in relation to the labor market.