IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/rlecon/v7y2011i1n1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Problem of Social Cost: What Problem? A Critique of the Reasoning of A.C. Pigou and R.H. Coase

Author

Listed:
  • Demsetz Harold

    (University of California, Los Angeles)

Abstract

This essay discusses and refutes allegations by A.C. Pigou and R.H. Coase that a competitive, private-ownership economic system that conforms to the neoclassical model fails to allocate resources efficiently. The essay then suggests a source of inefficiency that differs from and is much more limited in application than are those offered by Pigou and Coase; and the suggested source, moreover, is compatible with the neoclassical model.

Suggested Citation

  • Demsetz Harold, 2011. "The Problem of Social Cost: What Problem? A Critique of the Reasoning of A.C. Pigou and R.H. Coase," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1-13, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:rlecon:v:7:y:2011:i:1:n:1
    DOI: 10.2202/1555-5879.1502
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.2202/1555-5879.1502
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2202/1555-5879.1502?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Demsetz,Harold, 2012. "From Economic Man to Economic System," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107640856, September.
    2. F. H. Knight, 1924. "Some Fallacies in the Interpretation of Social Cost," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 38(4), pages 582-606.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Ronald Coase
      by ? in Tiempo Económico on 2013-09-05 15:12:00

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Elodie Bertrand, 2019. "Much ado about nothing? The controversy over the validity of the Coase theorem," Post-Print hal-03479468, HAL.
    2. Yun-chien Chang, 2015. "An economic and comparative analysis of specificatio (the accession doctrine)," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 39(2), pages 225-243, April.
    3. Button, Kenneth, 2020. "The Transition From Pigou’S Ideas On Road Pricing To Their Application," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 42(3), pages 417-438, September.
    4. Brian Lee & Henry Smith, 2012. "The nature of Coasean property," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 59(2), pages 145-155, July.
    5. Jankovic Ivan & Block Walter, 2019. "Private Property Rights, Government Interventionism and Welfare Economics," Review of Economic Perspectives, Sciendo, vol. 19(4), pages 365-397, December.
    6. Robert B. Ekelund Jr & Edward O. Price III, 2012. "The Economics of Edwin Chadwick," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14915.
    7. Anetta Čaplánová & Marcel Novák, 2015. "Transakčné náklady, vlastnícke práva a externality - k vedeckému odkazu R. H. Coasea [Transaction Costs, Property Rights and Externalities - on the Contribution of R. H. Coase to Economic]," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2015(2), pages 244-257.
    8. Stephen Salant & Nathan Seegert, 2018. "Should Congestion Tolls be Set by the Government or by the Private Sector? The Knight–Pigou Debate Revisited," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 85(339), pages 428-448, July.
    9. Colin Doran & Thomas Stratmann, 2021. "The effects of neighboring parties on the value of rights: Evidence from timber harvests," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 88(2), pages 705-756, October.
    10. Vahabi, Mehrdad, 2011. "Soft budget constraint and the parastatal sector," MPRA Paper 37926, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Henry Manne, 2014. "Resurrecting the ghostly entrepreneur," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 27(3), pages 249-258, September.
    12. Elias L. Khalil, 2017. "Exploitation and Efficiency," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 44(3), pages 363-377, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Terry E. Daniel & Eyran J. Gisches & Amnon Rapoport, 2009. "Departure Times in Y-Shaped Traffic Networks with Multiple Bottlenecks," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(5), pages 2149-2176, December.
    2. Élodie Bertrand, 2006. "La thèse d'efficience du « théorème de Coase ». Quelle critique de la microéconomie ?," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 57(5), pages 983-1007.
    3. Mehdiloozad, Mahmood & Zhu, Joe & Sahoo, Biresh K., 2018. "Identification of congestion in data envelopment analysis under the occurrence of multiple projections: A reliable method capable of dealing with negative data," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 265(2), pages 644-654.
    4. Loukas Dimitriou & Theodore Tsekeris, 2009. "Evolutionary game-theoretic model for dynamic congestion pricing in multi-class traffic networks," Netnomics, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 103-121, April.
    5. De Palma, Andre & Motamedi, Kiarash & Picard, Nathalie & Waddell, Paul, 2007. "Accessibility and environmental quality: inequality in the Paris housing market," European Transport \ Trasporti Europei, ISTIEE, Institute for the Study of Transport within the European Economic Integration, issue 36, pages 47-74.
    6. Dariusz Kotlewski, 2022. "Przesłanki za wykorzystaniem rachunkowości wzrostu gospodarczego w badaniu specjalizacji regionalnych," Ekonomista, Polskie Towarzystwo Ekonomiczne, issue 2, pages 235-258.
    7. Winston, Clifford & Yan, Jia, 2011. "Can privatization of U.S. highways improve motorists' welfare?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7), pages 993-1005.
    8. Humberto Barreto, 2018. "Cuban Demography and Economic Consequences," Annual Proceedings, The Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy, vol. 28.
    9. Vonk Noordegraaf, Diana & Annema, Jan Anne & van Wee, Bert, 2014. "Policy implementation lessons from six road pricing cases," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 172-191.
    10. Glazer, Amihai & Niskanen, Esko, 2000. "Which consumers benefit from congestion tolls?," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt33d88115, University of California Transportation Center.
    11. Nir Mualam & Debora Sotto, 2020. "From Progressive Property to Progressive Cities: Can Socially Sustainable Interpretations of Property Contribute toward Just and Inclusive City-Planning? Global Lessons," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-29, June.
    12. Button, Kenneth, 2020. "The Transition From Pigou’S Ideas On Road Pricing To Their Application," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 42(3), pages 417-438, September.
    13. Rouwendal, Jan & Verhoef, Erik T., 2004. "2. Second-Best Pricing For Imperfect Substitutes In Urban Networks," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 27-60, January.
    14. Vorotnikova, Ekaterina & Schmitz, Andrew, 2013. "On Positive Externality," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 150462, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    15. Verhoef, Erik T., 1999. "Time, speeds, flows and densities in static models of road traffic congestion and congestion pricing," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 341-369, May.
    16. Mehrdad Vahabi, 2011. "Appropriation, violent enforcement, and transaction costs: a critical survey," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 147(1), pages 227-253, April.
    17. Jacques-Laurent Ravix, 1997. "Fondements critiques pour une analyse de la dynamique industrielle : la méthode de Allyn Young," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 48(4), pages 965-988.
    18. Vincenzo Bonifaci & Tobias Harks & Guido Schäfer, 2010. "Stackelberg Routing in Arbitrary Networks," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 35(2), pages 330-346, May.
    19. Theisen, Theis, 2020. "The impact of an urban toll ring on housing prices," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    20. Klára Čermáková & Pavel Procházka & Lucie Kureková & Jiří Rotschedl, . "Do Institutions Influence Economic Growth?," Prague Economic Papers, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 0.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:rlecon:v:7:y:2011:i:1:n:1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.