Tuesday, September 3, 2013

THIS WOULD'VE BEEN POSTED SOONER, BUT, Y'KNOW, TRANSACTION COSTS:  Yes, of course, the Ronald Coase story we enjoyed through Isaac Spaceman's Friends-based retelling made its way into the NYT's obit today

While teaching at the University of Virginia, Professor Coase submitted his essay about the F.C.C. to The Journal of Law and Economics, a new periodical at the University of Chicago. The astonished faculty there wondered, according to one of their number, George Stigler, “how so fine an economist could make such an obvious mistake.” They invited Professor Coase to dine at the home of Aaron Director, the founder of the journal, and explain his views to a group that included Milton Friedman and several other Nobel laureates-to-be. 
“In the course of two hours of argument, the vote went from 20 against and one for Coase, to 21 for Coase,” Professor Stigler wrote later. “What an exhilarating event! I lamented afterward that we had not had the clairvoyance to tape it.”
I still think it works better with Coase-as-Rachel.

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