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. Ronald Coase activityadamanalysis share on social
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. Ronald Coase actassumebusiness share on social
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. Ronald Coase costdiscoverestablish share on social
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 Coase economicimportanceinstitutional Change image and share on social
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. Ronald Coase businessclassroomeconomics Change image and share on social
You get more irrationality within the family and in consumer behavior than you get, say, in the behavior of firms in their purchases. Ronald Coase behaviorconsumerfamily Change image and share on social
The tools used by economists to analyze business firms are too abstract and speculative to offer any guidance to entrepreneurs and managers in their constant struggle to bring novel products to consumers at low cost. Ronald Coase abstractanalyzebring share on social
I tend to regard the Coase theorem as a stepping stone on the way to an analysis of an economy with positive transaction costs. Ronald Coase analysiscoasecost Change image and share on social
The law of property determines who owns something, but the market determines how it will be used. Ronald Coase determinelawmarket Change image and share on social
You should not forget that without all the work in law and economics, a great part of which has been supported by the John M. Olin Foundation, it is doubtful whether the importance of my work would have been recognized. Ronald Coase doubtfuleconomicsforget share on social
