Thomas de Laine

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En specialeanekdote

Ronald Coase fik i 1991 nobelprisen i økonomi for sin artikel The Nature of the Firm fra 1937, der almindeligvis siges at stå for den eksplicitte introduktion af begrebet om transaktionsomkostninger i økonomi. Han var 21 år, da han udviklede ideerne i artiklen, som dog først blev publiceret fem år senere. I dag er han 98 og stadig i live!

Det kan måske lyde som lidt af et overmenneske. Men denne passage fra et 1988-konferencepaper, hvor han ser tilbage på årene omkring tilblivelsen af artiklen, trækker ligesom tingene ned på et andet niveau:

...I was giving three courses simultaneously at Dundee. In those days textbooks were not normally used, not at any rate in England, and we were expected to prepare our lectures based on our reading in the subject. Ignorant as I was of the subjects on which I was lecturing, preparation of my lectures took up a lot of my time, although not, I fear, as much as it ought to have done. Then in 1934 I was appointed an assistant lecturer at the University of Liverpool where I lectured on banking and finance, subjects about which I knew nothing. Mercifully, for me and for the students, in 1935 I was appointed an assistant lecturer in economics at the London School of Economics where I became responsible for the course on the economics of public utilities...

Den slags små ting pepper specialeskrivningen lidt op!

0 kommentarer | 10. juli 2009 kl. 10:47 | Tidligere >>