ABSTRACT
As the mainstream economics identifies itself so intimately with marginal analysis that the ‘change in approach’ that Coase called for amounts to little less than a revolution. The discovery of the marginal (in contrast with the average and the total) and its unique relevance in understanding human choice is no doubt the bedrock of the ‘marginal revolution’ on which neoclassical economics stands. But our focus on the margin should not blind us to other dimensions in economic calculation. The margin, as Coase (1946, 1960, 1974) has repeatedly shown, is not the only, sometimes even the primary, consideration. An exclusive focus on marginal calculation can easily lead us astray.
