Disproving the Coase Theorem?

Coase’s world and Coase’s blackboard

“…There is no disputing that the Coase Theorem owes its allure in part to its resistance to being fully understood, controversy over its significance, and unfinished debates over how exactly it needs to be qualified (Cooter 1987;de Meza 1998;Usher 1998;Medema and Zerbe 2000;Halpin 2007). I do not suggest that the framework developed here could solve all these puzzles, but it may at least provide some pointers as to why they have endured.…”

“…The challenge has been undertaken by paying particular attention to the reasoning employed by Coase in establishing the Coase Theorem when considering the impact of alternative activities open to the parties upon their calculations of rational self-interest (Halpin 2007). Here I shall suggest a broadening of that critique drawing on the framework of direct and indirect models developed above, with its emphasis on the different worlds involved in these models and the manner in which normative and positive applications are derived from them.…”

“…There is also the matter of considering the impact of the granting of legal entitlements on the attractiveness of alternative activities to the parties(Halpin 2007).…”

The Coase theorem: coherent, logical, and not disproved

“…3 Andrew Halpin (2007) argued that the fundamental reasoning of Coase is flawed, and therefore the 'theorem is disproved'. The problem is, in his analysis of Coase's reasoning, Halpin misreasons himself and slips some positive transaction costs in through a back door.…”

Challenging Privatization: A Conceptual and Theoretical Argument

“…Indeed it is this multiple fragmentation of the commons that primarily justifies coordination and redistribution by governments at all levels, however limited by borders, jurisdictions and other restrictions. 52 If Locke's intuitive conceptualization serves to define the commons in terms of human society's natural endowments (e.g. land, water and air), it has to be added also the fruits of collective labor (e.g.…”