Ronald H. Coase: Economics

Ronald H. Coase was British economist and author. Explore interesting quotes on economics.
Ronald H. Coase: 38 quotes21 likes

“Economists have uncovered the conditions necessary if Adam Smith’s results are to be achieved and where, in the real world, such conditions do not appear to be found, they have proposed changes which are designed to bring them about. It is what one finds in the textbooks. Harold Demsetz has said rightly that what this theory analyses is a system of extreme decentralisation. It has been a great intellectual achievement and it throws light on many aspects of the economic system. But it has not been by any means all gain.”

Ronald H. Coase

1990s and later, "The Institutional Structure of Production" (1992)

“Markets are institutions that exist to facilitate exchange, that is, they exist in order to reduce the cost of carrying out exchange transactions. In an economic theory which assumes that transaction costs are nonexistent. markets have no function to perform, and it seems perfectly reasonable to develop the theory of exchange by an elaborate analysis of individuals exchanging nuts for apples on the edge of the forest or some similar fanciful example. This analysis certainly shows why there is a gain from trade, but it fails to deal with the factors which determine how much trade there is or what goods are traded.”

Ronald H. Coase

1960s-1980s, "The Firm, the Market, and the Law" (1988)

“What is studied is a system which lives in the minds of economists but not on earth. I have called the result “blackboard economics.” The firm and the market appear by name but they lack any substance. The firm in mainstream economic theory has often been described as a “black box.””

Ronald H. Coase

And so it is.
1990s and later, "The Institutional Structure of Production" (1992)

“In mainstream economic theory, the firm and the market are, for the most part, assumed to exist and are not themselves the subject of investigation. One result has been that the crucial role of the law in determining the activities carried out by the firm and in the market has been largely ignored.”

Ronald H. Coase

1960s-1980s, "The Firm, the Market, and the Law" (1988)

“In my youth it was said that what was too silly to be said may be sung. In modern economics it may be put into mathematics.”

Ronald H. Coase

Source: 1960s-1980s, "Note on the problem of social costs", 1988, p. 185

“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.”

Ronald H. Coase

1990s and later, "The Institutional Structure of Production" (1992)