Ronald Coase, the British-born US economist who was awarded the Nobel prize in 1991, has died at the age of 102, the University of Chicago has announced.
Coase, who studied at the University of London and London School of Economics, was famous for his 1960 article, "The Problem of Social Cost", which was the basis for the Coase Theorem.
It suggests that well-defined property rights could overcome non-market forces. Another of his trailblazing works was "The Nature of the Firm" (1937), on the concept of transaction costs and how it explains firms' characteristics and limits.
He was also known for the Coase conjecture, which held that monopolists selling durable goods - products like cars and refrigerators that are not replaced often - compete with themselves over time and so must sell at a lower price.
After marrying Marion Ruth Hartung from Chicago, Coase moved from Britain to the United States, where he worked at the University of Buffalo, University of Virginia; and the University of Chicago, from 1964.
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When his 100th birthday was approaching, Coase was working on a book on Chinese and Vietnamese economic might called "How China Became Capitalist".
He received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1991.
He also received an honorary doctorate from the University at Buffalo department of economics in May 2012.
