Coase, Ronald

Coase, Ronald H. 1960. The Problemof Social Cost. Jourwa/of Laa and Economics 3 1 44. 

This issue was succinctly encapsulated in the statement Bibby attributes to Ronald Coase, viz If you torture the data enough they will eventually confess . The problem can be seen quantitatively in Table 7.13. If 14 or more separate independent analyses are carried out, it is more likely than not that at least one statistically significant difference will be found just as a result of the play of chance, even if there are no real differences in truth. The problem of multiple analyses also arises when several different studies have been carried out, and a particular difficulty is that authors and journals editors may prefer positive findings (statistically significant) to negative ones, creating a possible bias in the literature towards positive studies. 

Madhok, A., 2002. Reassessing the fundamentals and beyond Ronald Coase the transaction cost and resource-based theories of the firm and the institutional structure of production. Strategic Management Journal 23,... 

Friedrich Hayek and Henry Simons persuaded the Volker Fund to create a position at the law school from which Aaron Director launched the nation s first formal program in law and economics. After the Volker Fund went out of existence, the Olin Foundation became the programs primary funder. Directors courses had a profound impact on a small but dedicated core of law students, many of whom became evangelists for the law and economics movement. The program published the first issue of the Journal of Law and Economics in 1958. Director s successor, Ronald Coase, wrote what became one of the most widely cited articles in law and economics, an essay entitled The Problem of Social Cost. ... 

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