Ronald Coase

Ronald Harry Coase (born December 29, 1910) is a British economist and the Clifton R. Musser Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Chicago Law School.

Sourced

About externality :

• "The traditional approach has tended to obscure the nature of the choice that has to be made. The question is commonly thought of as one in which A inflicts harm on B and what has to be decided is: how should we restrain A? But this is wrong. We are dealing with a problem of a reciprocal nature. To avoid the harm to B would inflict harm on A. The real question that has to be decided is: should A be allowed to harm B or should B be allowed to harm A?"
  • The Problem of Social Cost

R. H. Coase Journal of Law and Economics, Vol. 3. (Oct., 1960), pp. 1-44.

About state regulation :

• "I can't remember [of a good regulation]. Regulation of transport, regulation of agriculture—agriculture is a, zoning is z. You know, you go from a to z, they are all bad. There were so many studies, and the result was quite universal: The effects were bad", in Reason, january 1997 (read online)

• If economists wished to study the horse, they wouldn't go and look at horses. They'd sit in their studies and say to themselves, "what would I do if I were a horse?"
  • In a speech to the "International Society of New Institutional Economics" the 17 September 1999, Washington DC. He claims he was quoting fellow economist Ely Devons which reportedly said this in a meeting.

• "In my youth it was said that what was too silly to be said may be sung. In modern economics it may be put into mathematics."
  • Ronald Coase (1988). The firm, the market and the law. Chicago London: The University of Chicago press.
    • Chapter 6. A remark on "The problem of social cost" (last sentence).