最早是庇古(A. C. Pigou)说,两条公路,一条是窄的近路,一条是宽的远路,在自由进出的情况下,第一条路会过份拥挤,所以分流安排不是最优的。然后是奈特(Frank Knight)。奈特在1924年的 Some Fallacies in the Interpretation of Social Cost 里作回应。奈特说如果那两条路是有主的,庇古所说的情况就不会发生。然后到了科斯(Ronald Coase)。科斯写了FCC(联邦贸易委员会)那篇文章,说无线电频谱如果有主的话,也不会发生拥挤的现象。科斯文章完全是奈特文章的另一个应用例子而已。
接下来是芝加哥大学的经济学家不赞同科斯,请科斯到戴维德(A. Director)家,一个晚上把十几个经济学家说服了的故事。然后,科斯从英国陆续给戴维德寄了好几章新的论说,就成了他的看上去并不连贯的“社会成本问题”的文章。在这篇文章里,科斯完全离开了原来奈特的方向。
In these conditions [of positive transaction] the initial delimitation of legal rights does have an effect on the efficiency with which the economic system operates. One arrangement of rights may bring about a greater value of production than any other. But unless this is the arrangement of rights established by the legal system, the costs of reaching the same result by altering and combining rights through the market may be so great that this optimal arrangement of rights, and the greater value of production which it would bring, may never be achieved.