Coase’s theorem: An attempted diagnosis

Each time society enters a new economic crisis, it asks what the economy should be like or, more specifically, what a market economy should be like. This discussion continues to divide the public and scientists into two opposing camps. The representatives of the first camp defend the free market principle, construing the market economy as a self-developing system, intervention into which can lead only to negative consequences. The representatives of the second camp hold the idea of partial market control and regulation. These opposing viewpoints are reflected in the article below, whose author, in investigating noneconomic effects of market processes, argues in favor of nonmarket levers of the economy.