Thursday, January 7, 2010

Does the Coase Theorem apply to Cameron's "Avatar"?

I first came across the Coase Theorem in a class on international relations, where it was used to explain the difficulties that states face in fixing problems that do not respect political boundaries (things like pollution or conservation). (Crudely put, the Coase Theorem states that in those cases when one agent's actions impose a cost on another agent, then it is possible for the two to come to a Pareto efficient outcome even in the absence of regulatory powers, only if the transaction costs are non-existent / negligible.) That class argued that the Coase Theorem did not apply in these cases because the transaction costs were far too high, and hence the only way out was to create international organizations to tackle these problems.

This article by David Friedman, on the other hand, has some really interesting points to make about the application of the Coase Theorem, and about the manner in which it was adopted, sometimes grudgingly, by economists. His point, as far as I understand it, is this: the problem is between two agents and is not merely the result of one party (which may be true economically), and it is entirely possible that an external regulatory authority may impose economically inefficient penalties on the wrong party by misunderstanding the situation. His suggestion is that we think of property rights in ways that minimize transaction costs, which make it easier for the two parties to negotiate a compromise without the need for an external regulatory authority.

What I'm trying to work through, though, is a possible application of the theorem: Could the Coase Theorem apply to the planet Pandora in James Cameron's Avatar flick? More to come when I actually have something interesting to say on the topic / know a little more about the Coase Theorem.

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