The economist and the judge

Abstract

In “The Problem of Social Cost” Ronald Coase tried above all to argue that economists could form a better judgment by drawing on the empirical methodology of judges. As this article aims to show, this reading is confirmed by Richard Posner’s shift over the years toward Coase’s approach. In 1993 Posner criticized Coase’s economic approach as being antitheoretical. Yet in Overcoming Law (1995), Posner defined his own legal pragmatism as an “antitheory.” It was only at the beginning of the 2010s that Posner explicitly and positively reappraised Coase’s economic approach. Posner’s shift toward Coase helps shed more light on the Coasian relationship between economists and judges. This relationship implied that economists should be inspired by judges and not the other way around, contrary to the belief held by Posner, who thought judges should adopt the economics that Coase criticized as too abstract.