Ronald Coase, whose full name happens to be Ronald Harry Coase was born on 29 December in Britain. He is one of the most important figures in the field of economics during the contemporary period. His valuable contributions to the discipline of economics have been placed very highly and find relevance even today.
Life and Works
Ronald Harry Coase was born in Willsden in England in December. He graduated from London School of Economics in 1931and received his doctorate degree from the University of London in the year 1951. He went to USA in the same year and began work at the University of Buffalo. This was just the beginning of his career. After his stint in this university he moved on to the University of Virginia in 1958, followed by the University of Chicago in 1964. He also became the editor of the Journal of Law and Economics. He served at the University of Chicago until he retired and then was appointed a professor emeritus at the University of Chicago Law School.
Contribution to Economics
Coase is well known for two of his articles, which were by far the most important contributions to the field of economics. The articles are:
The Nature of the Firm- This article was published in 1937 and it threw a light on the concept of transaction costs to analyze the size of firms.
The Problem of Social Cost is another article, which is famous for the suggestion that property rights should be well defined and that would help to overcome the problems regarding the externalities.
He is the genitor of the reformative measures that were implemented to the policy for allocation of electromagnetic spectrum. His article entitled “The Federal Communications Commission” which was published in 1959 is a critique on spectrum licensing. He suggested that property rights would be an appropriate method of allocating spectrum to users. He has also contributed another theory to the arena of economics. This was a very important contribution popularly known as the “Coase Conjecture”. This article puts an emphasis on the fact that the manufacturers of durable goods cannot establish market monopoly since they cannot slash the prices of the goods in time.
The Ronald Coase Institute was established by Ronald Coase and is an organization that seeks to develop the study of markets.
Major Works of Ronald Coase
His major works are:
Famous Fables of Economics
Economic Books
He had won the Nobel Prize in 1991 for his contribution towards economics.