The Credibility Thesis offered by Peter Ho and the paradigmatic Coase Theorem are… two influential theories predicated on the fact that the former, with its hallmark being “function trumps form”, is said to embrace institutional arrangements as endogenous, while the latter treats them as policy variables (Lawrence W.C. Lai, 2024)
The Credibility Thesis effectively articulated is inspirational, innovative, and provocative with great potentials to advance theoretical inquiry (George C.S. Lin, 2017)
The Credibility Thesis’ rallying call of function presides over form… takes a fresh approach to credibility, land policy, and property theory. Initially developed with regard to land policy in main-land China, the credibility of property rights is also relevant from the perspective of Western property theory (Benjamin Davy, 2018)
Credibility is a powerful metric and has much to offer both the academic and practitioner perspective on tenure analysis and policy (Delilah Griswold, 2015)
Unpacking the question of Who owns? lies at the heart of the Credibility Thesis. It shows that the idea of ownership as a supreme right does not exist, neither in a “developing” South nor in a “developed” North. Ho’s endeavor in this area was recognized by Nobel Prize laureate Elinor Ostrom (2010).
The theoretical and methodological groundwork of the Credibility Thesis was awarded with the William Kapp Prize for Evolutionary & Political Economy and the China Rural Development Award.