The Coase Theorem Revisited: Implications for Economic Transition

This paper supports the view expressed by other authors that Ronald Coase’s ideas are often misrepresented in the academic world. It restates some of Coase’s main findings with special emphasis on their relevance to processes taking place in Eastern Europe. The goal of this paper is to revisit Coasean theory, to prove that oftentimes it is misrepresented and misinterpreted and to show its relevance to some societies experiencing high transaction costs. The role of the legal system under high transaction costs is stressed in its importance to transitional economies experiencing staggeringly high transaction costs. This paper tries to shed light on the importance of transaction costs in the newly emerging markets and the respective role courts and the government should play in directing economic resources.

Another Graphical Proof of Arrow's Impossibility Theorem

Arrow's (1951) Impossibility Theorem is the idea that, given several well-known assumptions, the social orderings of particular alternatives that are meant to reflect individuals' preferences must match the preferences of an arbitrary individual (the dictator). A social-choice rule other than dictatorship is impossible. Following from Fountain (2000), the author presents another graphical proof of the theorem that is intended to be more accessible to students and teachers of economics. The principal strength of this approach is that the patterns of agreements and conflicts over all possible combinations of two individuals' rankings of alternatives are transparent; appreciating these patterns is the key to intuitively understanding Arrow's theorem. A self-test for readers (or a classroom exercise for students) is included.     

The influence of pension funds on corporate governance

Although pension funds have gained importance in the last two decades, their role has not been described in detail by economic models. This article focuses on the scope of these institutional investors when they are not satisfied with a management team of a company in which the pension fund holds a block of shares. Stock holdings by pension funds are largely dispersed. Therefore, any intervention by pension funds in corporate governance requires the formation of a coalition of pension funds. The realization of a coordinated intervention, in turn, is subject to the problems related to the provision of public goods, such as free riding. We find that the stock dispersion and the combined share of pension funds, coordination costs and the attractiveness of the exit option are relevant factors for determining the probability of the success of interventions.     

JUSTIFYING A POLICY MIX FOR POLLUTION CONTROL: A REVIEW OF ECONOMIC LITERATURE

Abstract This paper provides a review of economic studies analysing the use of multiple policies – a so‐called policy mix – to cope with single pollution problems. To guide and structure the review, an analytical framework is developed and applied. The framework integrates transaction costs into the analysis of pollution problems and policies to overcome them. Moreover, it understands a pollution externality not only as a market failure but more generally as the failure of private governance structures. Based on this insight, two rationales for using a policy mix are identified. First, a policy mix may help to correct for multiple reinforcing failures of private governance structures, such as pollution externalities and technological spillovers. Second, a policy mix can be employed if the implementation of single first‐best policies brings about high transaction costs, e.g. when marginal pollution damages are heterogeneous or polluters are unlikely to comply with the policy. For each rationale, the relevant literature is presented. Based on the review, avenues for future research are identified.     

Estimation of the change point of a distribution based on the number of failed test items

This paper discusses the family of life distributions with failure rate functions which decrease initially until a change point and remain constant thereafter. The paper focuses on the estimation for the change point of the failure rate function. While point estimation of the change point of the failure rate function has been discussed by some authors, one can hardly find any existing work on the interval estimation of the change point. In this paper, a method for constructing approximate confidence intervals for the change point is proposed. The proposed approximate confidence intervals are based on the number of failed test items at or before a fixed inspection time. Received: September 1999     

从马克思主义经济学看庇古分析与科斯分析之异同及其政策启示

针对外部性市场失效引发的生态环境问题，文章从讨论庇古分析与科斯分析的本质着手，运用马克思主义经济学关于个别生产与社会生产之关系的观点，引入价值体系与价格体系的数学规划模型，通过模型分析，从产权过程的角度，讨论庇古分析与科斯分析之并同和不完备性，从制度工具论的角度，归纳了两大分析的政策启示。     

交易成本、禀赋效应与国有股权转让定价——兼论国有企业混合所有制改革的新思路

国有企业混合所有制改革是积极发展混合所有制经济的关键,完善的定价机制有助于推进国有企业混合所有制改革。国有股转让过程中存在大量的交易成本,扭曲了定价体系。基于科斯定理,可以发现,明晰产权是优化定价体系有效途径。但是,禀赋效应的存在,使得科斯定理无法完全解决国有股转让定价问题。对此,需要采取市场和非市场的政策组合,以此来完善国有股转让定价机制,推进国有企业混合所有制改革。     

科斯产权理论的适用范围与土地产权理论的发展

科斯提出,只要财产权是明确的,并且交易成本为零或者很小,那么,无论在开始时将财产权赋予谁,市场均衡的最终结果都是有效率的。科斯的产权理论对于优化资源配置、完善产权制度具有重要意义,但其对于土地这一不一定具有可替代性的资产,并不完全适用。通过实例定性分析科斯产权理论的局限性和适用范围,阐述土地产权位移理论提出的背景,为土地产权理论的进一步发展提供可借鉴的参考。