Block Responds to Selgin on Coase

Ronald Coase

 Dr. Walter Block has responded to this tweet:

Whatever the other requirements for being a "real" free market economist are, according to this bunch, I surmise that being able to drive a clown car is one of them. https://t.co/zJDEy7DDZV

— George Selgin (@GeorgeSelgin) November 24, 2020

From Dr. Block: 

George Selgin is 100% correct when he says “Coase never suggests that historical circumstances, possession, etc, etc., etc. should play no part in legal decisions. It's a grotesque and utterly bad faith misreading of him to suppose otherwise.”

 

However, to maintain this, as I do, is a reductio ad absurdum of what he does say: that the proper way to determine property rights is based on future actions, costs, benefits.

 

Here are some critiques of Coase on social costs that might be of interest:

 

Coase, Ronald H. 1960. "The Problem of Social Cost," Journal of Law and Economics, 3:1-44;  http://www.econ.ucsb.edu/~tedb/Courses/UCSBpf/readings/coase.pdf

 

Austro libertarian critics of Coasean law and economics:

 

Barnett and Block, 2005, 2007, 2009; Block 1977, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2010A, 2010B, 2010C, 2011; Block, Barnett and Callahan, 2005; Cordato, 1989, 1992a, 1992b, 1997, 1998, 2000; DiLorenzo, 2014; Fox, 2007; Hoppe, 2004; Krause, 1999; Krecke, 1996; Lewin, 1982; North, 1990, 1992, 2002; Rothbard, 1982, 1997; Stringham, 2001; Stringham and White, 2004; Terrell, 1999.

 

Barnett, William II and Walter E. Block. 2005. “Professor Tullock on Austrian Business Cycle Theory,” Advances in Austrian Economics, Vol. 8, pp. 431-443

 

Barnett, William II and Walter E. Block. 2007. “Coase and Van Zandt on Lighthouses,” Public Finance Review, Vol. 35, No. 6, November, pp. 710-733; http://pfr.sagepub.com/content/35/6/710

 

Barnett, William and Walter E. Block. 2009. “Coase and Bertrand on Lighthouses,” Public Choice; 140(1–2):1–13, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11127-008-9375-x

 

Block, Walter E. 1977. "Coase and Demsetz on Private Property Rights," The Journal of Libertarian Studies: An Interdisciplinary Review, Vol. I, No. 2, Spring, pp. 111-115, http://www.mises.org/journals/jls/1_2/1_2_4.pdf; reprint translation: “Coase y Demsetz sobre el derecho de propiedad privada,” Libertas 37, Octubre de 2002, año XIX, pp.5-20.

 

Block, Walter E. 1995. "Ethics, Efficiency, Coasean Property Rights and Psychic Income: A Reply to Demsetz," Review of Austrian Economics, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 61-125, http://www.mises.org/journals/rae/pdf/rae8_2_4.pdf; http://www.mises.org/journals/rae/pdf/r82_4.pdf; reprint translation: “Ética, eficiencia, derechos de propiedad Coasianos e ingreso psíquico: una respuesta a Demsetz,” Libertas 37, octubre de 2002, año XIX, pp. 71-210

 

Block, Walter 1996. "O.J.'s Defense: A Reductio Ad Absurdum of the Economics of Ronald Coase and Richard Posner," European Journal of Law and Economics, Vol. 3, pp. 265-286; http://www.walterblock.com/publications/block_oj's-defense.pdf

 

Block, Walter E. 2000. “Private Property Rights, Erroneous Interpretations, Morality and Economics: Reply to Demsetz,” Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, Vol. 3, No. 1, Spring, pp. 63-78; http://www.mises.org/journals/qjae/pdf/qjae3_1_8.pdf; reprint translation: “Derecho de propiedad privada, interpretaciones erróneas, moralidad y economía: en respuesta a Demsetz,” Libertas 37, octubre de 2002, año XIX, pp. 227-264

 

Block, Walter E. 2003. "Private property rights, economic freedom, and Professor Coase: A Critique of Friedman, McCloskey, Medema and Zorn," Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Vol. 26, No. 3, Summer, pp. 923-951; http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_go2782/is_3_26/ai_n6640908/?tag=content

 

Block, Walter E. 2006. "Coase and Kelo: Ominous Parallels and Reply to Lott on Rothbard on Coase," Whittier Law Review, Vol. 27, No. 4, pp. 997-1022; https://litigation-essentials.lexisnexis.com/webcd/app?action=DocumentDisplay&crawlid=1&doctype=cite&docid=27+Whittier+L.+Rev.+997&srctype=smi&srcid=3B15&key=7abe221cecca64ce06068c3cbfa36fd1

 

Block, Walter E. 2010A. “A Response to Brooks’ Support of Demsetz on the Coase Theorem.” Dialogue, Vol. 2; http://www.uni-svishtov.bg/dialog/2010/2.10.WB.pdf

 

Block, Walter E. 2010B. “Rejoinder to Brooks on Coase and Demsetz.” Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics; Vol. 13, No. 4, Winter, pp. 56-73; http://mises.org/journals/qjae/pdf/qjae13_4_3.pdf

 

Block, Walter E. 2010C. “Rejoinder to Boettke on Coasean Economics and Communism.” Romanian Economic and Business Review, Vol. 5, No. 3, Fall, pp. 9-90; http://www.rebe.rau.ro/REBE%205%203.pdf

 

Block, Walter E. 2011. “Rejoinder to Bertrand on lighthouses.” Romanian Economic and Business Review, Vol. 6, No. 3, Fall, pp. 49-67; http://www.rebe.rau.ro/REBE%206%203.pdf

 

Block, Walter E., William Barnett II and Gene Callahan. 2005. “The Paradox of Coase as a Defender of Free Markets,” NYU Journal of Law & Liberty, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 1075-1095; http://tinyurl.com/2hbzd4; http://www.nyujll.org/articles/Vol.%201%20No.%203/Vol.%201%20No.%203%20-%20Barnett,%20Block%20and%20Callahan.pdf; http://tinyurl.com/2hbzd4

to be reprinted in Mario Rizzo, ed. forthcoming. Austrian Law and Economics

 

Cordato, Roy E. 1989. "Subjective Value, Time Passage, and the Economics of Harmful Effects," Hamline Law Review, Vol. 12, No. 2, Spring, pp.229-244.

 

Cordato, Roy E. 1992A. "Knowledge Problems and the Problem of Social Cost" Journal of the History of Economic Thought, vol.14, Fall, pp. 209-224.

 

Cordato, Roy E. 1992B. Welfare Economics and Externalities in an Open-Ended Universe: A Modern Austrian Perspective, Boston: Kluwer.

 

Cordato, Roy E. 1997. "Market-Based Environmentalism and the Free Market: They're Not the Same," The Independent Review, Vol. 1, No. 3, Winter, pp. 371-386.

 

Cordato, Roy. 1998. “Time Passage and the Economics of Coming to the Nuisance: Reassessing the Coasean Perspective,” Campbell Law Review, vol. 20, No. 2, Spring, pp. 273-292

 

Cordato, Roy. 2000. "Chasing Phantoms in a Hollow Defense of Coase" The Review of Austrian Economics, Vol. 13, No. 2, September, pp. 193-208.

 

DiLorenzo, Tom. 2014. “When Did Ronald Coase Become the Ayatollah of Economic Theory?” January 2; http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/01/thomas-dilorenzo/the-beltarian-cult/

 

Fox, Glenn. 2007. “The Real Coase Theorems.” The Cato Journal: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Public Policy Analysis. Volume 27 Number 3, Fall, pp. 373-396; http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj27n3/cj27n3-5.pdf

 

Hoppe, Hans-Hermann. 2004. “The Ethics and Economics of Private Property.” October 11; http://www.lewrockwell.com/hoppe/hoppe11.html

 

Krauss, Michael. 1999. "Tort Law, Moral Accountability, and Efficiency: Reflections on the Current Crisis" Markets and Morality, Vol. 2, No. 1, Spring; http://www.acton.org/publicat/m_and_m/1999_spr/krauss.html

 

Krecke, Elisabeth. 1996. "Law and the Market Order: An Austrian Critique of the Economic Analysis of Law," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines 7(1), March, pp.19-37; Commentaries on Law&Economics, 1997 Yearbook, ed., Robert W. McGee, pp.86-109.

 

Lewin, Peter.  1982. “Pollution Externalities: Social Cost and Strict Liability.”  Cato Journal, vol. 2, no. 1, Spring, pp. 205-229.

 

North, Gary. 1990. Tools of Dominion: The Case Laws of Exodus, Tyler, TX: Institute for Christian Economics.

 

North, Gary. 1992. The Coase Theorem, Tyler, TX: The Institute for Christian Economics

 

North, Gary. 2002. “Undermining Property Rights: Coase and Becker,” The Journal of Libertarian Studies: An Interdisciplinary Review, Vol. 16, No. 4, Fall, pp. 75-100; http://www.mises.org/journals/jls/16_4/16_4_5.pdf

 

Rothbard, Murray N. 1982. "Law, Property Rights, and Air Pollution," Cato Journal, Vol. 2, No. 1, Spring; reprinted in Economics and the Environment: A Reconciliation, Walter E. Block , ed., Vancouver: The Fraser Institute, 1990, pp. 233-279. http://www.mises.org/rothbard/lawproperty.pdf; http://mises.org/story/2120

 

Rothbard, Murray N. 1997.  "Value Implications of Economic Theory," Logic of Action I (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar), pp. 255-265.

 

Stringham, Edward Peter, and Mark White. 2004. “Economic Analysis of Tort Law: Austrian and Kantian Perspectives.” In Law and Economics: Alternative Economic Approaches to Legal and Regulatory Issues, ed. Margaret Oppenheimer and Nicholas Mercuro, 374-392. New York: M.E. Sharpe. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1676271 

 

Stringham, Edward. 2001. "Kaldor-Hicks Efficiency and the Problem of Central Planning," Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, Vol. 4, No. 2, Summer, 41-50; http://www.mises.org/journals/qjae/pdf/qjae4_2_3.pdf

 

Terrell, Timothy D. 1999. “Property Rights and Externality: The Ethics of the Austrian School.” Journal of Markets and Morality. Vol. 2, No. 2, Fall; http://www.acton.org/publications/mandm/mandm_article_114.php

-RW