They spurn the cultural and geographic stories of their forebears in favour of an approach rooted solely in institutional economics, which studies the impact of political environments on economic outcomes.

ECONOMIST: Creating economic wealth

As insights go, this may seem obvious, but Mr. Coase would eventually receive the Nobel Prize, in 1991, for pointing out what wasn't actually obvious in the 1930s and for going on to lay the foundation for institutional economics.

WSJ: Book Review: The Org