The Problem of Epistemic Cost: Why Do Economists Not Change their Minds (About the ‘Coase Theorem’)?

Abstract:     
Errors in the history of economic analysis often remain uncorrected for long periods due to positive epistemic costs (PEC) involved in allocating time to going back over what older generations wrote. In order to demonstrate this in a case study, the economists’ practice of the 'Coase Theorem' is reconsidered from a PEC point of view.

Keywords: epistemic costs, intellectual path dependence, ideologization, the 'Coase Theorem,' 'The Problem of Social Cost' (1960)

JEL Classification: B25, B41, B52

Accepted Paper Series