Ronald Coase
Ronald Coase
Ronald Harry Coasewas a British economist and author. He was for much of his life the Clifton R. Musser Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Chicago Law School, where he arrived in 1964 and remained for the rest of his life. After studying with the University of London External Programme in 1927–29, Coase entered the London School of Economics, where he took courses with Arnold Plant. He received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1991...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionEconomist
Date of Birth29 December 1910
cost establish firm main mechanism obvious prices production profitable relevant seem using
The main reason why it is profitable to establish a firm would seem to be that there is a cost of using the price mechanism. The most obvious cost of 'organizing' production through the price mechanism is that of discovering what the relevant prices are.
determines owns
The law of property determines who owns something, but the market determines how it will be used.
doubtful forget great importance john supported whether work
You should not forget that without all the work in law and economics, a great part of which has been supported by the John M. Olin Foundation, it is doubtful whether the importance of my work would have been recognized.
assume business buys dealing firm operating roughly sells
Roughly speaking, when you are dealing with business firms operating in a competitive system, you can assume that they're going to act rationally. Why? Because someone in a firm who buys things at $10 and sells them for $8.00 isn't going to last very long in that firm.
activity adam analysis centuries correct errors fill gaps main seems since vastly wealth
During the two centuries since the publication of 'The Wealth of Nations,' the main activity of economists, it seems to me, has been to fill the gaps in Adam Smith's system, to correct his errors and to make his analysis vastly more exact.
analysis positive regard stepping tend theorem
I tend to regard the Coase theorem as a stepping stone on the way to an analysis of an economy with positive transaction costs.
abstract analyze bring business constant consumers economists guidance low managers novel offer products
The tools used by economists to analyze business firms are too abstract and speculative to offer any guidance to entrepreneurs and managers in their constant struggle to bring novel products to consumers at low cost.
business classroom currently economics less presented taught textbooks
Economics as currently presented in textbooks and taught in the classroom does not have much to do with business management, and still less with entrepreneurship.
allow multiple occupy parties technology
Technology is at a point where we should allow multiple parties to occupy the same spectral space.
changes cost increase organizing reduce size telephone tend
Changes like the telephone and telegraphy, which tend to reduce the cost of organizing spatially, will tend to increase the size of the firm.
among counted great known life nor number walked
In my long life, I have known some great economists, but I have never counted myself among their number nor walked in their company.
consumer family
You get more irrationality within the family and in consumer behavior than you get, say, in the behavior of firms in their purchases.
agriculture regulation study
I can't remember [of a good regulation]. Regulation of transport, regulation of agriculture — agriculture is a, zoning is z. You know, you go from a to z, they are all bad. There were so many studies, and the result was quite universal: The effects were bad
truth knowledge data
If you torture the data long enough, it will confess.