Transcript
  • 00:00    |    
    Initial credits
    • The Intellectual Portrait series
    • Introducing Ronald H. Coase
    • Early years
    • Academic years
    • Key publications
    • Nobel Prize in Economic Science
  • 04:54    |    
    A conversation with Ronald H. Coase and Richard A. Epstein
  • 05:07    |    
    Who influenced you at the London School of Economics and what did they teach you?
    • Arnold Plant, professor of commerce at London School of Economics
    • Edwin Cannan
  • 06:31    |    
    How was your life once you moved to the United States, and who were the people who influenced you?
  • 07:24    |    
    Why do we have firms and what do they do?
    • Theory of the firm
    • Interviews with business men in the United States
    • Gradual transition from socialism into a market oriented economy
    • Basis of the article "The Nature of the Firm"
    • Interest in businesses and centralized planning of socialism
    • Impact of English brand of socialism
    • Elements that made the firm seem intelligible and sensible
    • Transaction cost
    • Managerial cost
    • Comparing costs
  • 14:14    |    
    What were other intellectual interesting duties you carried out?
    • Course on economic and public utilities
    • Monopoly in water supply
    • Unification of water supply companies
    • Water district arrangement
    • Was public utilities a mainstream subject in economics in the immediate post-war period?
    • Mail delivery system
    • Telegraph and broadcasting
    • Regulation of public utilities as a consequence of the expansion of the post office
    • Learning from study of public utilities
  • 28:59    |    
    Post-war period
    • Communication with colleagues during post-war period
    • Nature of the marginal cost controversy
    • Interest on the telephone service from greatest economists
    • Argument of the marginal cost controversy
    • Economic and political effect of monopoly and its relation with the British Broadcasting Corporation
    • Reasons to move to the United States
    • Work on the Federal Communications Commission
    • Creation of frequencies
  • 39:24    |    
    The Coase theorem
    • Meaning of the Coase theorem
    • Benefits from a lack of formal economics education
    • Efficiency of common law rules
    • Links between "The Nature of the Firm" and "The Problem of Social Cost"
    • Understanding of "The Problem of Social Cost" by lawyers and economists
  • 49:01    |    
    "The Lighthouse in Economics", n (1974)
    • Discovery in investigations about lighthouses
    • Mechanism to collect tolls
    • Right to collect tolls granted from government
    • Political economy of lighthouses when taken over by the government
  • 53:15    |    
    "Durability and Monopoly", n (1972)
    • Conditions on durable goods
    • Understanding goods as a whole
  • 58:15    |    
    Disagreement with Milton Friedman regarding the methodology of positive economics
  • 01:00:26    |    
    Advice for young generations of economists
  • 01:01:32    |    
    Final words
  • 01:02:01    |    
    Final credits


A Conversation with Ronald H. Coase

New Media  | 01 de agosto de 2001  | Vistas: 1365

During this interview, audiences may learn about the early beginnings and academic years of whom later became a Nobel Prize in Economic Science winner, Ronald H. Coase. A broad number of subjects are discussed, involving the intellectual activities he carried out, ranging from his interest in economics and law, his transition from socialism up to the various publications and theories laid out by him.

The interlocutors converse on the hows and whys of his analyses, providing insights on key terms like business firms, transaction costs, externalities, durable goods and future periods, which lead him to write articles such as "The Nature of the Firm", "Durability and Monopoly", "The Lighthouse in Economics", among many others, as well as "The Problem of Social Cost", which was considered to be the basis of what is known as the Coase theorem.

The interview concludes in his own Coasean pragmatic and realistic manner, as he advises economists to focus on the solutions of the existing real life problems.




Conferencistas

Ronald H. Coase (1910-2013) was an economist, author of the 1937…