The Problem of Social Cost
E434107
The Problem of Social Cost is Ronald Coase’s landmark 1960 law-and-economics article that introduced the analysis of externalities and bargaining that underpins what later became known as the Coase theorem.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| "The Problem of Social Cost" | 1 |
| The Problem of Social Cost canonical | 1 |
| article "The Problem of Social Cost" | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4329672 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Problem of Social Cost Context triple: [Coase theorem, relatedTo, The Problem of Social Cost]
-
A.
Coase theorem
The Coase theorem is an economic theory stating that if property rights are well-defined and transaction costs are negligible, private bargaining will lead to an efficient allocation of resources regardless of the initial assignment of rights.
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B.
The Economics of Welfare
The Economics of Welfare is a foundational 1920 economics treatise by Arthur Cecil Pigou that systematically develops welfare economics and the concept of externalities to analyze the role of government in correcting market failures.
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C.
The Economics and Ethics of Private Property
The Economics and Ethics of Private Property is a libertarian treatise by Hans-Hermann Hoppe that defends private property, free markets, and anarcho-capitalism through praxeological and ethical arguments.
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D.
The Theory and Measurement of Demand
The Theory and Measurement of Demand is a foundational economics book by Henry Schultz that rigorously develops statistical and mathematical methods for estimating consumer demand.
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E.
The Scope and Method of Economic Science
The Scope and Method of Economic Science is a foundational work in economic methodology that examines the proper aims, limits, and scientific status of economics as a discipline.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Problem of Social Cost Target entity description: The Problem of Social Cost is Ronald Coase’s landmark 1960 law-and-economics article that introduced the analysis of externalities and bargaining that underpins what later became known as the Coase theorem.
-
A.
Coase theorem
The Coase theorem is an economic theory stating that if property rights are well-defined and transaction costs are negligible, private bargaining will lead to an efficient allocation of resources regardless of the initial assignment of rights.
-
B.
The Economics of Welfare
The Economics of Welfare is a foundational 1920 economics treatise by Arthur Cecil Pigou that systematically develops welfare economics and the concept of externalities to analyze the role of government in correcting market failures.
-
C.
The Economics and Ethics of Private Property
The Economics and Ethics of Private Property is a libertarian treatise by Hans-Hermann Hoppe that defends private property, free markets, and anarcho-capitalism through praxeological and ethical arguments.
-
D.
The Theory and Measurement of Demand
The Theory and Measurement of Demand is a foundational economics book by Henry Schultz that rigorously develops statistical and mathematical methods for estimating consumer demand.
-
E.
The Scope and Method of Economic Science
The Scope and Method of Economic Science is a foundational work in economic methodology that examines the proper aims, limits, and scientific status of economics as a discipline.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
academic article
ⓘ
law and economics article ⓘ |
| arguesThat |
allocation of legal rights affects resource allocation when transaction costs are positive
ⓘ
with zero transaction costs, parties can bargain to an efficient outcome regardless of initial allocation of rights ⓘ |
| author | Ronald Coase NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| centralConcept |
bargaining
ⓘ
economic efficiency ⓘ externalities ⓘ legal liability ⓘ property rights ⓘ social cost ⓘ transaction costs ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| critiques | Pigouvian approach to externalities ⓘ |
| discipline | law and economics ⓘ |
| exampleUsed |
Sturges v. Bridgman
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
nuisance disputes between neighboring land uses ⓘ railway sparks and crop damage cases ⓘ |
| field |
environmental economics
ⓘ
microeconomics ⓘ property law ⓘ tort law ⓘ |
| focusesOn |
reciprocal nature of harm in externality problems
ⓘ
role of the legal system in minimizing social costs ⓘ |
| impact |
foundational work in law and economics
ⓘ
influential in design of legal rules for nuisance and liability ⓘ influential in development of transaction cost economics ⓘ major influence on economic analysis of law ⓘ |
| influencedConcept | Coase theorem NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| length | long-form article ⓘ |
| methodology | case-based analysis of legal disputes ⓘ |
| proposes | comparative institutional analysis of legal rules ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1960 ⓘ |
| publishedIn | Journal of Law and Economics NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| publisher | University of Chicago Press NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
The Nature of the Firm
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
bargaining theory ⓘ environmental regulation ⓘ liability rules ⓘ nuisance law ⓘ property rights theory ⓘ transaction cost economics ⓘ welfare economics ⓘ |
| status |
landmark article in law and economics
ⓘ
one of the most cited articles in law and economics ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Problem of Social Cost Description of subject: The Problem of Social Cost is Ronald Coase’s landmark 1960 law-and-economics article that introduced the analysis of externalities and bargaining that underpins what later became known as the Coase theorem.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
article "The Problem of Social Cost"
this entity surface form:
"The Problem of Social Cost"