Ronald H. Coase
Ronald H. Coase received the 1991 prize in Economic Sciences. This profile brings together the official award record and attributed background on the economist’s work and career.
Personal and professional profile
- Name
- Ronald H. Coase [1]
- Full name
- Ronald H. Coase [2]
- Birth date
- 1910-12-29 [2]
- Birthplace
- Willesden, United Kingdom [2]
- Education
- Queens Park Community School; Kilburn Grammar School; University of Virginia; University of London; London School of Economics and Political Science [3]
- Fields / occupation
- writer; economist; historian; university teacher [3]
- Prize
- Economic Sciences · 1991 [2]
- Research recognized
- for his discovery and clarification of the significance of transaction costs and property rights for the institutional structure and functioning of the economy [2]
- Prize share
- 1 [2]
- Affiliation at the award
- University of Chicago [2]
- Death date
- 2013-09-02 [2]
- Institutions in career record
- The Ronald Coase Institute; University of Chicago; University at Buffalo; University of Virginia; University of Dundee [3]
Research, education and career background
Ronald Harry Coase (; 29 December 1910 – 2 September 2013) was a British economist and author. Coase was educated at the London School of Economics, where he was a member of the faculty until 1951. He was the Clifton R. Musser Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago Law School, where he arrived in 1964 and remained for the rest of his life. He received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1991. [4]
Coase believed economists should study real-world wealth creation, in the manner of Adam Smith, stating, "It is suicidal for the field to slide into a hard science of choice, ignoring the influences of society, history, culture, and politics on the working of the economy." He believed economic study should reduce emphasis on price theory or theoretical markets and instead focus on real markets. He established the case for the corporation as a means to pay the costs of operating a marketplace. Coase is best known for two articles: "The Nature of the Firm" (1937), which introduces the concept of transaction costs to explain the nature and limits of firms; and "The Problem of Social Cost" (1960), which suggests that well-defined property rights could overcome the problems of externalities if it were not for transaction costs (see Coase theorem). Additionally, Coase's transaction costs approach has been influential in modern organizational economics, where it was re-introduced by Oliver E. Williamson. [4]
Selected introductory text by Wikipedia contributors — Ronald Coase, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Official facts are cited separately.
Award and academic affiliation
The official Nobel record dates the Economic Sciences award to 1991 and lists University of Chicago as the affiliation at the time. [2]
An affiliation attached to an award describes that point in the person’s career; it does not establish a current appointment. [2]
Education and career timeline
Source-supported connections
Frequently asked questions
When did Ronald H. Coase receive the prize in Economic Sciences?
The official award record gives the year as 1991. [2]
Which institution was Ronald H. Coase affiliated with at the time of the Economic Sciences award?
University of Chicago. This is the award-time affiliation. [2]
Ronald H. Coase connection map
Select a node to inspect the relationship and source.
Links retain their source-specific meaning. Award-time affiliations and links to related reading are not claims about current appointments or economic causation.
Sources and review dates
- Nobel Prize — official biography and award record ↗
- Nobel Prize — official biography and award record ↗
- Wikidata background facts (CC0) ↗
- Wikipedia contributors — Ronald Coase (CC BY-SA 4.0) ↗
Reviewed 23 October 2026. Historical dates and award-time affiliations retain their original context. A review date is not an event date. Background sources are identified separately from official records.