ah, I was wondering why the scholarly bells have been ringing in mourning all day,
RIP ronald coase
-
I mean, there are a lot of fantastic, non-controversial stuff (like most of the top rated posts in EJMR history, e.g. cf81's video) that has been bizarrely downvoted.
I've fat-fingered the no good link while browsing on a phone in the past. It's bound to happen on occasion with any very popular post. But no gooding Coase (RIP) is incredibly cretinous.
-
I met him once (at The New School, NYC). It was a dinner and conference. A bunch of famous economists showed up there. Professor Coase impressed me a lot by how many things he had going on. At his age, he had plans for the future, not memories about the past. He was very intelligent, respectful, and kind. I wish more economists were like him.
-
So you think Becker, Lucas and Heckman (and Myerson) are all deadwood?
This is a devastating blow to Chicago. This summer they lost 2 of their most productive econ faculty. I'm not saying this as a joke. I mean it. Fogel still spent a lot of time with students (more than the other farts in the econ department) and you still get work from him. Coase was in the law school (so no interaction with econ students while I was there) but it is rumored that he still went around campus and you still get him publishing books worth reading and papers and comments that people think are valuable.
You look at the econ department... and you just feel sad. Where the hell has the Chicago that I used to know go? Its a disgrace to the name the represent. -
It's not just a blow to Chicago,it's a big blow to the field in general. And he knew so much. I had met him years ago while as a grad student(i was just starting). His papers were some of the very few that i managed to read during my undergrad days. I went to have a little chat with him. He was so nice. He had absolutely no reason to listen to me,but he spoke with me for about 20 minutes.
I might have bored you with my long,personal post but I had to write one. In this profession full of a-holes,people like Coase are hard to come by. RIP to one of the greatest scholars of economics and above all to a really nice human being. I am really,really sad now.