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Conference honors Nobel laureate
Nobel Laureate Ronald Coase, who will receive a SUNY honorary degree at UB’s 166th general commencement on May 13, also will be recognized the previous day with a conference organized in his honor by UB economists.
The invitation-only event, which will pay tribute to Coase’s innovative work—especially over the past decade—will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. May 12 in the Buffalo-Niagara Marriott, Millersport Highway, Amherst. It is organized by the Center for Human Capital in the UB Department of Economics.
Coase was a faculty member in UB’s economics department for eight years in the 1950s, arriving here from the London School of Economics. In 1991, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in economic sciences for “his discovery and clarification of the significance of transaction costs and property rights for the institutional structure and functioning of the economy.” His work has had a profound impact on modern economics, clarifying the theory of the firm and giving rise to the field of law and economics.
Coase is the Clifton R. Musser Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Chicago Law School and founder of the Ronald Coase Center for the Study of the Economy at Zhejiang University, China.
The UB conference honoring Coase, titled “The Market for Ideas, Human Capital and Economic Development,” acknowledges the central issue Coase has pursued over the Past decade concerning the institutional factors that have contributed to China’s transformation into a market economy.
In addition to the Center for Human Capital, sponsors of the conference are the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development, the School of Management and the College of Arts and Sciences.
“The conference will also explore the link between the market for ideas and economic development more generally—how the market for ideas contributes to the development of innovative human capital as the ultimate engine of self-sustaining and persistent growth in productivity and individual income,” says Isaac Ehrlich, SUNY and UB Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Economics.
“The common theme is that the incentives for individuals to invest in human capital, the rate of growth of human capital and the economic returns to human capital are fundamentally influenced by the market for ideas because it dictates how knowledge is produced, disseminated and utilized.”
In addition to his intellectual contributions to economics, Coase was responsible for policy reform in broadcasting, arguing that a property-rights mentality was a more efficient means of allocating radio and television frequencies to potential licensees than other methods in use at the time. His 1959 article on the subject has led to him sometimes being referred to as the “father of reform” of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Coase will be among the conference presenters, joined by other outstanding scholars within and outside of UB, including 1993 Nobel Laureate Douglass North.
For more information on the conference, visit the websites of the Center of Excellence on Human Capital, Technology Transfer, & Economic Growth and Development and the Department of Economics.
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