【摘要】With Wallis and North's progress on measuring transaction costs,this article aims to establish a theoretical framework of measuring the transaction sector in the Chinese economy,and gives a practical measuring of transaction costs in the Chinese economy from 1978 to 2000. From the results of the measurement,a close correlation between the transaction costs growth and economic growth in China has been revealed. The growth rate of transaction costs in different industries is different.The new forthcoming transaction service industries are the industries in which the transaction costs growth more rapidly than the manufacturing industries of non transaction service.