I cannot resist calling to the attention of the 
list the importance of Mason Gaffney in the Coase 
theorem literature­in this case, the journals, 
not the textbooks. The December 1966 AEA meetings 
included a paper presentation by Allan Schmid on 
water resources. Mason was one of the discussants 
in this session. Another of the discussants, 
Robert Haveman referred in his comments to “the 
Coase theorem.” When these discussant comments 
were published in the AER Proceedings issue in 
1967, we had the first use of the term “Coase 
theorem” in the journal literature. Thus, while 
Mason and I may have different views of the 
import of the Coase theorem in the history of 
economic ideas, he can at least say that he was 
there when history was being made. I, on the 
other hand, was still wearing diapers.

Steve Medema