Outside the firm, price movements direct production, which is co-ordinated through a series of exchange transactions on the market. Within a firm, these market transactions are eliminated and in place of the complicated market structure with exchange transactions is substituted the entrepreneur-co-ordinator, who directs production.
Ronald CoaseI can't remember one [example of regulation] that's good. 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.
Ronald CoaseIf economists wished to study the horse, they wouldnโt go and look at horses. Theyโd sit in their studies and say to themselves, "what would I do if I were a horse?"
Ronald CoaseExisting economics is a theoretical system which floats in the air and which bears little relation to what happens in the real world.
Ronald CoaseA firm, therefore, consists of the system of relationships which comes into existence when the direction of resources is dependent on an entrepreneur... As a firm gets larger, there may be decreasing returns to the entrepreneur function, that is, the costs of organising additional transactions within the firm may rise.
Ronald CoaseRonnie had it right calling it Torture. That is a much more accurate description the way I see it.
Ronald CoaseEconomics, over the years, has become more and more abstract and divorced from events in the real world. Economists, by and large, do not study the workings of the actual economic system. They theorize about it. As Ely Devons, an English economist, once said in a meeting: 'If economists wanted to study the horse, they wouldn't go around and look at horses. They'd sit in their studies and say to themselves, `What would I do if I were a horse?' '
Ronald Coase