On Fri, Dec 26, 2025 at 02:40 PM, Tom Walker wrote: > > This presents an interpretation that is at odds with the standard > reception of Coase as supporting deregulation and opposing polluter pays > taxation. It did occur to me after I wrote those three abstractions that > without transaction costs, uneven information and imperfect competition > there would be no need for markets or exchange because cooperation could be > substituted for market exchange. If this is what Coase was getting at, he > certainly has been misunderstood.
I think that you are on to something. Mainstream economists liked some of Coase's ideas and they sought to squeeze them into their own economic models, which was something that he very much objected too. Coase covered a lot of these points in his 1991 Nobel Lecture ( https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1991/coase/lecture/ ). And BTW he summarized his views concerning the mathematization of economics in the following statement in that lecture: > > My remarks have sometimes been interpreted as implying that I am hostile > to the mathematization of economic theory. This is untrue. Indeed, once we > begin to uncover the real factors affecting the performance of the > economic system, the complicated interrelations between them will clearly > necessitate a mathematical treatment, as in the natural sciences, and > economists like myself, who write in prose, will take their bow. May this > period soon come. > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#39879): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/39879 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/116944738/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
