The Chicago Intellectual Property Rights Tradition and the Reconciliation of Coase and Hayek

摘要

The Chicago intellectual property rights tradition offers a rich and suggestive interpretation of market institutions as alternatives to direct government tax and subsidy schemes. By making particular legal and other institutions a serious subject for investigation, Chicago economists have enriched our understanding of the diversity of the market process. They have also pointed the way toward a more realistic appraisal of the role of government in the economy. I have tried to show how this approach now encourages a viable research program and, in addition, can be used to reconcile Coase (1937) and Hayek (1945).