Coase on Law and Economics Published
Jun 27-2024
After 12 years of translation by a team of scholars, the English version of Coase on Law and Economics was officially unveiled alongside its Chinese version in a recent ceremony as part of the 23rd NSD Chengze Forum and the 592nd PKU Bo Ya Lectern. The event was organized by the NSD and Peking University Press on June 7, 2024.
Mr. Ji Chuanbo, Editor-in-Chief of Peking University Press, spoke highly of the value of the publication of the book. He said that as an academic publishing house, Peking University Press attaches great importance to the introduction and translation of Western classics. The book received the approval and editing by Prof. Coase himself, and was translated collaboratively by many researchers. Mr. Ji expressed his gratitude to all the translators, editors and supporters of the book.
Mr. Wang Ning, in his thematic sharing, traced the development of Coase’s economic thoughts. He is head of Coase China Society, senior research fellow with The Ronald Coase Institute, Editor-in-Chief of Population and Economics, and editor of Coase on Law and Economics. He highly commended Coase’s contributions and the wide-ranging influence of his thoughts. He said that Coase was the founder of several economics schools of thought and contributed critiques and reflections to the economics discipline as well as its practices, pedagogy, and research. Before passing away, Coase put forward the concept of “good economics”, which Mr. Wang called on China’s young researchers to work hard for.
Prof. Zhang Weiying of the NSD made comments on the question “What Coase teaches us?” He boiled Coase’s spiritual heritage down to five parts: step out of ‘blackboard economics’ and research into the real world, for ‘blackboard economics’ might get disconnected with reality; economic research must adhere to the principle of logical consistency, no matter what methodologies or frameworks are applied; economics should focus on analyzing the delineation of rights and transactions, rather than pricing, and the transactional cost theory holds the key to understanding institutional efficiency; economics mustn’t neglect the irrational behavior of humankind, as rationality makes market possible and irrationality makes market necessary; thought market is highly important because a free thought market helps defuse human stupidity. Researchers must dare to question and go beyond norms, take risks and make innovations.
Prof. Li Jingkui, professor at School of Economics, Zhejiang Gongshang University, and one of the translators of the book; Prof. Dai Xin, tenured associate professor at Peking University Law School; and Zhang Xiaobo, former NSD professor and Director of PKU Center for Enterprise Research, also each made remarks on the book.
