緬懷寇斯：兼談「經濟分析法學」的修行

In Memoriam: Ronald H. Coase and My Immersion in Law and Economics

本文追憶寇斯的貢獻，包括他與芝加哥大學法學院的淵源，並兼談「經濟分析法學」（以下稱L&E）的「修行」。經濟分析法學發源於芝加哥大學，這種用經濟學（以及其他社會科學）來分析與評估法律的來源、內涵、成效、演變的方法，在過去50年來成為「顯學」，寇斯居功厥偉。本文用「修行」一詞來顯示它對作者的影響。本文先從個人留學攻讀法律的角度，追憶與L&E的接觸，以及轉學芝加哥大學法學院並接觸到寇斯相關論文，以及所受到的影響。這種研究方法打破臺灣或大陸法系傳統教學模式，作者從驚恐到因應，從接受到信服，受惠良多。本文繼而簡介寇斯主要論文的背景、意義以及對作者研究臺灣財經社會制度諸多相關議題（如公司法制、併購、私募基金、解除管制、都市更新、產權行使的協調等等）的啟發。最後，本文從寇斯晚年的研究重心探討L&E未來的發展與挑戰，包括他對經濟學界「數學化」現況的失望、對研究中國市場化進程的用心，並指出如果寇斯的理念可讓更多實務界人士成為修行者，其影響將更為廣泛。

This paper pays tribute to Ronald H. Coase, a founder of the law and economics (L&E) movement. It traces his relationship with the University of Chicago and discusses the author's immersion in L&E. I discuss the origin, methodology, development and impact of this interdisciplinary approach in the last half century. I use the term of immersion or pilgrimage to highlight how it has affected the author's own thinking and research. This paper begins by recounting how the author became exposed to L&E around his arrival at the University of Chicago as a student, and sets forth how the work of giants like Coase first came as a shock to the uninitiated author, who later embraced it wholeheartedly. The paper contains a summary of Coase's contribution and some anecdotes surrounding the publication of his important papers. In passing, the author describes his own research in recent years, in areas like capital market reform, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, de-regulation, property right and urban renewal, and how the L&E approach has influenced his scholarship. This paper closes by describing Coase's work before passing away, and his disillusion with today's mathematics-infatuated economics profession. It argues that L&E as espoused by Coase will be more influential if it can convert practitioners like the author