Essential Coase: Who Was Ronald Coase?

Born in Willesden, England—a London suburb—in 1910, Ronald Harry Coase was one of the 20th

century's most influential economists who made significant contributions in not only

economics, but also legal studies, social and political science, and business management.

While attending the University of London in the early 1930s, Coase travelled to the United

States on a scholarship and studied at the University of Chicago with famed economists

Frank Knight and Jacob Viner.

During his time in the U.S., Coase visited several factories—in particular Ford and

General Motors assembly plants—to learn how they organized production.

Those visits gave Coase the empirical foundation to write one of the most influential papers

of his entire career—The Nature of the Firm in 1937.

After university, Coase began teaching in England and during World War Two he worked

as an analyst for the British government.

Following the war, Coase's academic career took him to various universities in the U.S.

While working at the University of Virginia, Coase wrote his most famous paper, The Problem

of Social Cost in 1960.

In 1964, Coase joined the law faculty at the University of Chicago and remained there for

the rest of his career, where he also served as an editor of the prestigious Journal of

Law and Economics.

For his powerful and lasting insights into transaction costs and property rights, Coase

was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics in 1991, and he continued writing and working

until his death in 2013 in Chicago at the age of 102.

For more information on Ronald Coase visit EssentialCoase.org,

and to learn about more essential scholars, visit EssentialScholars.org