(born 1910), U.S. senior fellow in law and economics at University of Chicago Law School, born in London, England; attended London School of Economics 1929–32; earned doctorate at University of London 1951; immigrated to U.S. 1951; taught at University of Buffalo 1951–58, University of Virginia 1958–64, and University of Chicago 1964–79; elected Distinguished Fellow of American Economic Association 1979; earned 1991 Nobel prize for economic sciences for pioneering work on ways in which transaction costs and property rights affect business and society; formulated Coase theorem, which states that market forces find the best solution to a dispute regardless of the parties' liabilities; wrote important papers, ‘The Nature of the Firm' (1937) and ‘The Problem of Social Cost' (1960); book, ‘British Broadcasting, A Study in Monopoly' (1950). see also in index Nobel Prizewinners,