One of the more striking features of the debate over the Coase theorem is the wide variety of models and theoretical frameworks used to discuss, evaluate, or otherwise analyze Coase's result - an artifact of an ambiguity in Coase's reasoning. Some framed Coase's result in a bargaining context...

This paper revisits the path by which Coase developed the result now known as the Coase theorem, including the famous meeting at the home of Aaron Director during which Coase 'converted' a group of Chicago economists to his way of thinking. Drawing on published and archival sources, we discuss...

In 1965, Henry Manne convinced the Association of American Law Schools and the American Economic Association to establish an ad hoc Joint Committee to explore the possibilities of collaborative efforts between economists and legal scholars. This paper examines the origins and activities of this...

The present paper revisits the path by which Coase came to set down the result now generally known as the Coase theorem in his 1960 article. I draw on both the published record and archival resources in an effort to clear away some of the mist and, as it will emerge, dispel some of the...

The diffusion of the Coase theorem into the economics literature has many facets, one of which lies in its use and treatment by environmental economists. This paper examines the first two decades of this history, a period during which the theorem's validity was widely acknowledged but its...

It is now a commonplace to include a discussion of the Coase theorem in one's intermediate microeconomics textbook, generally in a chapter devoted to externalities or externalities and public goods. But this was not always the case. As the present paper demonstrates, it took nearly two decades...

The ‘Coase theorem' has long been the idea most commonly associated with Ronald Coase's analysis in The Problem of Social Cost. Yet, Coase frequently argued late in his career that he has been misunderstood, and that the central message(s) of the article lay elsewhere. Though virtually all of...

The present paper revisits the path by which Coase came to set down the result now generally known as the Coase theorem in his 1960 article. I draw on both the published record and archival resources in an effort to clear away some of the mist and, as it will emerge, dispel some of the...

One of the more striking features of the debate over the Coase theorem is the wide variety of models and theoretical frameworks used to discuss, evaluate, or otherwise analyze Coase’s result - an artifact of an ambiguity in Coase’s reasoning. Some framed Coase’s result in a bargaining...

This paper explores the reception of Ronald Coase's article, "The Problem of Social Cost," over the period 1961-1965. Though this article came to be most closely identified with the idea now known as the 'Coase theorem,' the focus of the early reactions to, and use made of, Coase's analysis was...