biography
| name: |
Coase, Ronald (Harry)
|
pronunciation:
[kohs]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1910– )
|
| biography:
| Economist, born in London, UK. Educated in England, he worked as a statistician in the British War Cabinet before emigrating to the USA in 1951. After teaching at the University of Virginia (1958–64), he taught at the University of Chicago Law School until his retirement (1964–79). He is known for formulating his theories through visiting work sites and for advancing his views in plain English as opposed to abstruse mathematics. Two journal articles are the basis of his widespread influence: ‘The Nature of the Firm’ (Economics, 1937) which analyzed the economics of ‘transaction costs’, secondary expenses such as those involved in negotiating contracts and in other activities that affect business operations and decisions; and ‘The Problem of Social Cost’ (Journal of Law and Economics, 1960), which spawned two subdisciplines: the economics of property rights and the economics of law. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1991. |
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