DILBERT AND THE COASE THEOREM. Ronald Coase has died at age 102. He won the Nobel Prize for Economics for two articles he wrote which were extraordinarily influential. The second of the articles led to a result which is known as the Coase Theorem. Professor Greg Mankiw in 2011 posted a Dilbert cartoon on his important blog and captioned it The Coase Theorem in Action. The cartoon is here. The dialogue in the cartoon goes as follows:
Dilbert’s coworker: My best friend from college keeps bugging me to visit her. The flight will cost a small fortune.
Dilbert: Try offering her a cash payment of half the estimated cost of the trip if she agrees to stop inviting you.
Dilbert’s coworker: You don’t have any friends, do you?
Dilbert: I hear they’re expensive.