| Nicolai Foss |
What does the Coase Theorem require epistemically? To put it less mysteriously, what are the assumptions concerning agents’ knowledge that must be made for the Coase theorem to hold? Or, to rephrase it somewhat, what does zero transaction costs mean in terms of agents’ knowledge (an inquiry started by Carl Dahlman in this paper)?
In his retrospective (1988) discussion and assessment of the debate on the theorem, “Notes on the Problem of Social Cost,” Coase seems to imply that the Theorem requires omniscience. I think that Barzel makes the same inference in his Economic Analysis of Property Rights. In other words, the Coase Theorem holds iff all resource uses, current as well as future ones, are known by everyone.
Not all writers seem to agree with this interpretation, however.
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