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
economists firm importance prompt role
There is no doubt that the recognition by economists of the importance of the role of the firm in the functioning of the economy will prompt them to investigate its activities more closely.
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.
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.
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.
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.
people
People have used my views for purposes which are very different from mine.
importance structure system
What I have done is to show the importance for the working of the economic system of what may be termed the institutional structure of production.
bad cheaper good people producing seen
The pollution problem is always seen as someone who was doing something bad that has to be stopped. To me, pollution is doing something bad and good. People don't pollute because they like polluting. They do it because it's a cheaper way of producing something else.
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.
I'm no enthusiast for the Coase Theorem. I don't like it, but it's widely used.
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.
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.
I've been wrong so often, I don't find it extraordinary at all.
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.