IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ebl/ecbull/eb-09-00379.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The empty core in the Coase theorem: a critical assessment

Author

Listed:
  • Enrico Guzzini

    (Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy)

  • Antonio Palestrini

    (University of Teramo, Italy)

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to give some insights about the debate between Aivazian and Callen (1981, 2003) and Coase (1981) regarding the empty core problem. In particular our analysis concerns the role played by transaction costs in the debate. By maintaining the Aivazian-Callen transaction cost structure, we introduce in the analysis the new category “transaction costs in changing the state” which is linked to reputation and which may occur in situations of endless bargain. We argue, under our particular assumptions, that although Aivazian and Callen (2003) analysis is correct, Coase's intuition regarding the relationship between transaction costs and the empty core (Coase 1981) may be supported within Aivazian and Callen (2003) framework, if we introduce reputational concerns.

Suggested Citation

  • Enrico Guzzini & Antonio Palestrini, 2009. "The empty core in the Coase theorem: a critical assessment," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 29(4), pages 3095-3103.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-09-00379
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.accessecon.com/Pubs/EB/2009/Volume29/EB-09-V29-I4-P298.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Maija Halonen, 2002. "Reputation And The Allocation Of Ownership," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(481), pages 539-558, July.
    2. Varouj Aivazian & Jeffrey Callen, 2003. "The Core, Transaction Costs, and the Coase Theorem," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 287-299, December.
    3. Bernholz, Peter, 1997. "Property rights, contracts, cyclical social preferences and the Coase theorem: A synthesis," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 419-442, September.
    4. R. H. Coase, 2013. "The Problem of Social Cost," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(4), pages 837-877.
    5. Aivazian, Varouj A & Callen, Jeffrey L, 1981. "The Coase Theorem and the Empty Core," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(1), pages 175-181, April.
    6. Telser, Lester G, 1996. "Competition and the Core," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(1), pages 85-107, February.
    7. Lester G. Telser, 1994. "The Usefulness of Core Theory in Economics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 8(2), pages 151-164, Spring.
    8. Mueller,Dennis C., 2003. "Public Choice III," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521894753.
    9. Coase, R H, 1981. "The Coase Theorem and the Empty Core: A Comment," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(1), pages 183-187, April.
    10. Bernholz, Peter, 1999. "The generalized Coase Theorem and separable individual preferences: an extension," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 331-335, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Stéphane Gonzalez & Alain Marciano, 2017. "De nouveaux éclairages sur le théorème de Coase et la vacuité du cœur," Revue d'économie politique, Dalloz, vol. 127(4), pages 579-600.
    2. Aivazian, Varouj A. & Callen, Jeffrey L., 2023. "The Coase Theorem and the empty core: Inspecting the entrails after four decades," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    3. Bin Ye & Jingjing Jiang & Lixin Miao & Ji Li & Yang Peng, 2015. "Innovative Carbon Allowance Allocation Policy for the Shenzhen Emission Trading Scheme in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-23, 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. Steven G. Medema, 2020. "The Coase Theorem at Sixty," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 58(4), pages 1045-1128, December.
    2. Alex Robson, 2014. "Transaction costs can encourage Coasean bargaining," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 160(3), pages 539-549, September.
    3. Herbert Hovenkamp, 2011. "Coasean markets," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 63-90, February.
    4. E. Guzzini & A. Palestrini, 2012. "Coase theorem and exchangeable rights in non-cooperative games," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 33(1), pages 83-100, February.
    5. Stéphane Gonzalez & Alain Marciano, 2017. "De nouveaux éclairages sur le théorème de Coase et la vacuité du cœur," Revue d'économie politique, Dalloz, vol. 127(4), pages 579-600.
    6. Jingang Zhao, 2018. "A Reexamination of the Coase Theorem," The Journal of Mechanism and Institution Design, Society for the Promotion of Mechanism and Institution Design, University of York, vol. 3(1), pages 111-132, December.
    7. Aivazian, Varouj A. & Callen, Jeffrey L., 2023. "The Coase Theorem and the empty core: Inspecting the entrails after four decades," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    8. Aivazian Varouj A. & Callen Jeffrey L., 2017. "The Coase Theorem and Core Theory," Man and the Economy, De Gruyter, vol. 4(2), pages 1-5, December.
    9. Crettez Bertrand, 2020. "The Coase Theorem, the Nonempty Core, and the Legal Neutrality Principle," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 16(1), pages 1-16, March.
    10. Piacquadio Paolo G. & Di Bartolomeo Giovanni & Acocella Nicola, 2009. "A simple framework for investigating the properties of policy games," wp.comunite 0059, Department of Communication, University of Teramo.
    11. Varouj A. Aivazian & Jeffrey L. Callen & Susan McCracken, 2009. "Experimental Tests of Core Theory and the Coase Theorem: Inefficiency and Cycling," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 52(4), pages 745-759, November.
    12. Varouj Aivazian & Jeffrey Callen, 2003. "The Core, Transaction Costs, and the Coase Theorem," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 287-299, December.
    13. Ko, Il-Dong, 1988. "Issues in the control of stock externality problems with inflexible policy measures," ISU General Staff Papers 198801010800009859, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    14. Hurwicz, Leonid, 1995. "What is the Coase Theorem?," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 49-74, May.
    15. Caparrós, By Alejandro & Pereau, Jean-Christophe, 2021. "Inefficient coasean negotiations over emissions and transfers," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 359-378.
    16. Peter Bernholz, 2012. "From The Calculus of Consent to extended logrolling, negative externalities, and the Coase theorem," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 152(3), pages 265-271, September.
    17. 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.
    18. Ellingsen, Tore & Paltseva, Elena, 2012. "The private provision of excludable public goods: An inefficiency result," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(9-10), pages 658-669.
    19. Fritz W. Scharpf, 1994. "Games Real Actors Could Play," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 6(1), pages 27-53, January.
    20. Paul Weirich, 2011. "Exclusion from the social contract," Politics, Philosophy & Economics, , vol. 10(2), pages 148-169, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Coase theorem; empty core.;

    JEL classification:

    • D2 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations
    • D7 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making

    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:ebl:ecbull:eb-09-00379. 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: John P. Conley (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.