Swiss land improvement syndicates: ‘Impure’ Coasian solutions?

An increasing number of planners have explored the implication of Coase theorem for planning theory and practice. As there are often a large and dispersed number of actors involved in planning issues, the application of ‘Pure’ Coasian solutions has proved to be limited. However, some studies argue that when the conditions for a ‘Pure’ Coasian solution do not exist, ‘Impure’ Coasian solutions may still be achievable. This article examines how, when conditions of ‘Impure’ Coasian solutions are available, local authorities in Switzerland use land improvement syndicates as a policy instrument in order to achieve negotiated solutions in relation to development processes involving multiple landowners. With a syndicate in the commune of Cheseaux as an illustrative example, the article analyses how this policy instrument has been utilised to reduce transaction costs, correct information asymmetries and clarify property rights. The focus has been on an interpretation of the Coasian theorem that identifies attempts to reduce transaction costs and clarify property rights as the main roles of governments or local authorities.

Download Full-text

The Insight and the Legacy of the Theory of Share Tenancy

Man and the Economy ◽

10.1515/me-2018-0005 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Douglas W. Allen ◽

Dean Lueck

Keyword(s):

Property Rights ◽

Transaction Costs ◽

Contract Design ◽

Coase Theorem ◽

The Future ◽

Economics Of Contracts ◽

Share Tenancy ◽

Phd Thesis

Abstract The Theory of Share Tenancy by Steven Cheung, first published as a PhD thesis 50 years ago, was an important watershed study on the economics of contracts. It contained the first formal demonstration of the Coase Theorem, linked the concepts of property rights and transaction costs, laid early foundations for the future economics of contracts, and can even lay claim to originating the idea of a risk/incentive tradeoff in contract design. This essay examines Cheung's key contributions in Share Tenancy, and considers reasons for its somewhat limited legacy outside of China.

Download Full-text

Geblendet vom Feuerwerk – der Beitrag von Coase über Umweltnutzungskonflikte | Dazzled by fireworks – the contribution made by Coase in the case of conflicts in environmental use

Schweizerische Zeitschrift fur Forstwesen ◽

10.3188/szf.2010.0135 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 161 (4) ◽

pp. 135-146

Author(s):

Martin Hostettler

Keyword(s):

Property Rights ◽

Transaction Costs ◽

Environmental Problems ◽

Coase Theorem ◽

Forest Economics ◽

Environmental Conflicts ◽

Economic View ◽

Way Of Thinking ◽

Economics Research

The contributions of the economist Ronald Coase (1959, 1960) have radically changed the analysis and rectification of environmental problems. A subtly differentiated notion of property and the recognition of the double-sided nature of environmental conflicts enabled him to develop a new economic view on environmental problems. Property rights will be exchanged – provided that transaction costs make this possible. His insights led to several new fields of research, though misunderstandings about the Coase Theorem are still prevalent today. Forest economics research has followed more strongly the Coasean way of thinking in recent years; however, the potential is not yet exhausted by a long way.

Download Full-text

The Coase theorem: coherent, logical, and not disproved

Journal of Institutional Economics ◽

10.1017/s1744137414000083 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 379-390 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

DOUGLAS W. ALLEN

Keyword(s):

Property Rights ◽

Transaction Costs ◽

Coase Theorem ◽

The Other ◽

Long Line ◽

Adequate Definition ◽

Definition Of

Abstract:There exists a long line of challengers to the ‘Coase Theorem’. All of these rest on fundamental misconceptions of property rights, transaction costs, and their interaction. Here I examine two attacks that have gone unchallenged: one by Halpin, the other by Usher. I argue that both, in failing to either use or understand an adequate definition of transaction costs, fail to deliver a fatal blow to Coase's famous idea.

Download Full-text

Post-Soviet Privatization in the Light of the Coase Theorem (Transaction Costs and Governance Costs)

Voprosy Ekonomiki ◽

10.32609/0042-8736-2003-12-120-136 ◽

2003 ◽

pp. 120-136 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

V. Andreff

Keyword(s):

Property Rights ◽

Transaction Costs ◽

Theoretical Perspective ◽

Transition Process ◽

Initial Distribution ◽

Coase Theorem ◽

Early Years ◽

Firm Boundaries ◽

Governance Costs ◽

The Relationship

A Coasian theoretical perspective is assumed to be in the background of most post-Soviet economies' privatization drives. The assumption of zero transaction costs underlying the Coase theorem guarantees an efficient reallocation of property rights whatever is their initial distribution. Once this assumption is relaxed, the result predicted by the Coase theorem is less certain and clashes with the nature of the firm as it has been analyzed earlier by Coase himself. This preliminary presentation is used as a critical driver to provide a non-mainstream assessment of privatization objectives in Russia that became so obviously high in the early years of the transition process. A Coasian analysis also helps to figure out the post-privatization firm boundaries and to design in-house restructuring as well as industrial restructuring - between industrial branches. The issue of the firm boundaries is crucial in the relationship between privatization and restructuring. Finally, we come to terms with the analysis of post-privatization property rights and corporate governance and their possible (governance) costs for in-house restructuring. The last section is devoted to an evaluation of standard and non-standard methods of privatization.

Download Full-text

Incomplete Contracts and Stakeholder Theory

Business and Professional Ethics Journal ◽

10.5840/bpej201982086 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 38 (3) ◽

pp. 321-338

Author(s):

Xiaohe Lu ◽

Keyword(s):

Business Ethics ◽

Property Rights ◽

Transaction Costs ◽

Stakeholder Theory ◽

Incomplete Contracts ◽

Theory And Practice ◽

Innovative Practice ◽

Market Transaction ◽

New Perspective ◽

Do So

If market transactions are optimal, why do so many transactions occur within firms themselves? Ronald H. Coase explains this phenomenon by arguing that market transaction costs differ from intra-company transaction costs and that clear intra-intra-firm property rights have the effect of reducing transaction costs. But what exactly are the relevant transaction costs, and what factors determine them? Oliver Hart argues that market contracts are incomplete, and that the key to improving efficiency is putting the power to deal with these unspecified circumstances into the hands of owners within the same entity.In this paper, I argued that, the development of the theory and practice of business ethics as well as China’s innovative practice in recent decades provide a new perspective, one that is especially relevant to the issues raised by Case and Hart and that bear directly on the reform of China’s state-owned enterprises.

Download Full-text

From transaction costs to transaction value: Overcoming the frictional paradigm

Voprosy Ekonomiki ◽

10.32609/0042-8736-2020-8-51-81 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 51-81

Author(s):

D. P. Frolov

Keyword(s):

Transaction Costs ◽

Transaction Cost ◽

Path Dependence ◽

Transaction Cost Economics ◽

Cost Minimization ◽

Low Cost ◽

Coase Theorem ◽

Transactional Analysis ◽

Transaction Sector ◽

Transaction Value

The transaction cost economics has accumulated a mass of dogmatic concepts and assertions that have acquired high stability under the influence of path dependence. These include the dogma about transaction costs as frictions, the dogma about the unproductiveness of transactions as a generator of losses, “Stigler—Coase” theorem and the logic of transaction cost minimization, and also the dogma about the priority of institutions providing low-cost transactions. The listed dogmas underlie the prevailing tradition of transactional analysis the frictional paradigm — which, in turn, is the foundation of neo-institutional theory. Therefore, the community of new institutionalists implicitly blocks attempts of a serious revision of this dogmatics. The purpose of the article is to substantiate a post-institutional (alternative to the dominant neo-institutional discourse) value-oriented perspective for the development of transactional studies based on rethinking and combining forgotten theoretical alternatives. Those are Commons’s theory of transactions, Wallis—North’s theory of transaction sector, theory of transaction benefits (T. Sandler, N. Komesar, T. Eggertsson) and Zajac—Olsen’s theory of transaction value. The article provides arguments and examples in favor of broader explanatory possibilities of value-oriented transactional analysis.

Download Full-text

A Materialist Basis for Planning Theory and Practice: Comments on the Papers by Roweis and by Forester

Environment and Planning D Society and Space ◽

10.1068/d010469 ◽

1983 ◽

Vol 1 (4) ◽

pp. 469-479 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

C Jensen-Butler

Keyword(s):

Social Practice ◽

Scientific Explanation ◽

Qualitative Change ◽

Theory And Practice ◽

Planning Theory ◽

Rational Approach ◽

Negative Consequences ◽

Planning Practice ◽

Base Analysis ◽

Epistemological Position

Analysis of the practice of planning is increasingly being used to develop planning theory, The papers by Roweis and Forester in the second issue of Environment and Planning D: Society and Space base analysis of planning practice on hermeneutic, linguistic, and phenomenological approaches, as an alternative to the technical -rational approach to planning theory, In the present paper, I argue that the approaches adopted by these two authors create more problems than they solve, and a critique of Roweis's and Forester's theoretical ideas is made, It is argued that these approaches rest upon idealist ontological assumptions, rendering explanation of qualitative change (development) impossible. Discussion of Giddens's concept of structuration and of the negative consequences for scientific explanation of Habermas's epistemological position is presented, as both approaches are used by Roweis and Forester. Criticism is also made of the separation of territorial relations from relations of substance. Finally, the serious consequences of their approaches for scientific and social practice are outlined. I conclude that this type of approach cannot provide a satisfactory basis for planning theory, and furthermore, that the approach is inherently conservative. Some ideas arc presented concerning planning theory based on materialist ontological foundations.

Download Full-text

On a Fallacy in the Coase Theorem and the Theorem of Transaction Costs Substitution

Man and the Economy ◽

10.1515/me-2020-0013 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 0 (0) ◽

Author(s):

Steven N. S. Cheung

Keyword(s):

Transaction Costs ◽

Transaction Cost ◽

Coase Theorem ◽

Economic Institutions ◽

General Version ◽

Historical Account ◽

Rent Dissipation

AbstractThis paper first presents a historical account of the origin of the Coase Theorem. It then elaborates its significance in explaining the working of economic institutions. After expounding the concepts of transaction cost and rent dissipation, it points out an error in the Coase Theorem. Lastly, the paper propounds the Theorem of Transaction Costs Substitution as an extended and general version of the Coase Theorem.

Download Full-text