| Popis: |
Kenneth Elzinga (1984, p. 572) has said that ‘The truly influential economist is one who affects how economists view fundamental problems in their own discipline and affects how non-specialists come to view the world of economic reality.’ Through his career’s work, and especially through his writing in ‘The Nature of the Firm’ and ‘The Problem of Social Cost’, Coase has had such an influence, and in the process has secured a permanent place in the history of economic thought. While his beginnings as a commerce student with no real background in mathematics did not exactly portend greatness as an economist, the end result, as Cheung (1987, p.455) has described it, was that ‘A seminal mind, fed with what we today would regard as a bare minimum of knowledge, was sufficient to see the world in its own way and to exert profound influence on the profession.’ It is difficult to say, exactly, what Coase’s place ultimately will be in the history of economic thought, since it is only in the last thirty years that his work has drawn a great deal of attention. That Coase innovated, and did so in important ways, is beyond question. It is the subsequent use of those innovations, their application, refinement and extension that await the test of time. |
