Why is “stigler’s coase theorem” stiglerian? A methodological explanation

Abstract

The Coase theorem is associated with Stigler because Stigler coined the term. The object of this paper is to show that Stigler’s Coase theorem is Stiglerian for deeper namely, methodological reasons. We argue that, convinced as he was by the importance of Coase’s message, Stigler also believed that this message such as presented in “The Federal Communications Commission” (1959) or “The Problem of Social Cost” (1962) was not scientific. Hence, he had to transform it into a theorem to give it a scientific dimension. This is what we try to show by presenting Stigler’s methodology and by confronting it to the methodology used in Coase’s articles.