More Coase

22 May 2012 at 11:59 pm Peter G. Klein 1 comment

| Peter Klein |

Russ Roberts interviews Coase on EconTalk. Familiar stuff, but it’s great to hear Coase talk about it at age 101. Some highlights:

Roberts: “[I]t’s hard to measure transactions costs; it’s hard to quantify the theory. Is that correct or is it irrelevant.” Coase: “It’s very relevant. But the state of economics is such that people don’t try to measure these things, to study them, and so people can engage in discussions and explanations without any real knowledge of what happens in the real world.”

Roberts: “What was your reaction to [game theory] and its influence on the study of the firm?” Coase: “I think the influence was wholly bad, because people developed high theoretical approaches instead of approaches based on what actually happens.”

Roberts: “[D]id you have contact with Keynes and Hayek, two great economists of that era in England?” Coase: “Yes. I was very friendly with Hayek. I liked him, and he liked me. But we didn’t have great contact. He tended to deal with these big questions, and I’m always interested in how the actual system operates. Therefore, in much smaller matters than Hayek.” Roberts: “And how about Keynes? Did you know Keynes?” Coase: “I can tell you– I was helping when Britain was trying to get a loan from the United States immediately after the war, and I was talking to one of Keynes’s assistants. And Keynes came in the room and walked over to us and the man I was talking to us said, ‘This is Coase, who is helping us with the statistics. I don’t think you know him.’ And Keynes said, ‘No, I don’t.’ And walked off. And that’s my life with Keynes. “