Abstract
Following a short biography of Nobel Laureate economist Ronald H. Coase, this two part interview explores (1) Coase’s life history and thoughts on academic scholarship and (2) Coase’s perspective on the field of entrepreneurship. Coase describes his experiences during his visiting scholarship to America in 1932, early career at the London School of Economics, and government work during World War II. He discusses the virtues of scholarship and the role of technology. In the second part of the interview, Coase views entrepreneurship as a vital source of endogenous change in the economy and outlines the importance of investigating the structure of production, and other important research and policy questions. Coase elaborates on how entrepreneurship has changed over time, and describes his most recent work on entrepreneurship in China. The interview concludes with Coase’s thoughts on the evolution of scholarship and his efforts to advance the field.
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Notes
See, for example: Coase (2002) on why economics will change—an address to the University of Missouri; Nye (1997) interview with Coase on the emergence of New Institutional Economics; Coase (1999) on the mission and features of the International Society of New Institutional Economics; Hazlett (1997) on the Coase Theorem and other topics; and Wang (2010a, b) on the aims of the Coase China Society.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank Professor Ronald Coase for granting this interview to commemorate his 102nd birthday. Coase also generously provided us with the permission to reprint excerpts from his autobiography (Coase 1991a) and speech (Coase 1991b). As Swedish law allows individuals to quote works without formal permission as long as the author and copyright are clearly stated, excerpts from the Nobel Foundation are marked as copyright (©The Nobel Foundation).
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Siri Terjesen and Ning Wang contributed equally.
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Terjesen, S., Wang, N. Coase on entrepreneurship. Small Bus Econ 40, 173–184 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-012-9468-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-012-9468-2