Through our workshops and conferences, network, and website, the Ronald Coase Institute assists young social science scholars around the world to study important economic problems in their own countries in order to broaden people’s opportunities to improve their own lives.

Workshops
The Institute has now held 31 workshops, training 699 participants from 77 countries.  These workshops are designed to help participants utilize new institutional economics and formulate significant research questions, design and implement empirical research, communicate their results persuasively to scholars, policy makers, and the public, and disseminate their findings widely.  One or more workshops are held each year, each with about 26 participants.  The participants are mainly young professors and advanced graduate students in economics and related disciplines, engaged in scholarly research in their own countries.

For each workshop, an open invitation to apply is posted publicly on the Institute’s website and distributed through scholarly networks worldwide. All qualified individuals are invited to apply. Participants are then chosen competitively by the Institute’s selection committee, based on their research abstracts, CVs, and letters of reference. Selections are made without consideration of race, religion, or gender.  Participants who need financial support to attend can apply for competitive fellowships that cover workshop tuition and, usually, the cost of meals and accommodations. About 82% of participants come from developing and transitional countries; many of them have been awarded fellowships on the basis of need.

The workshop faculty are established scholars and experts in economics, political science, law, and related discipline. They include 6 Nobel laureates in economics. All faculty contribute their time and services to the workshops without remuneration.

Network
After the workshops, graduates become part of a worldwide network of alumni and faculty who continue to support their research through mentoring and advice.  The Institute organizes research conferences and meetings for selected alumni.  It has arranged invitations to scholarly conferences such as the International Society of New Institutional Economics meetings, to showcase alumni research.  It posts information about alumni activities and achievements on its website, and it holds social events to strengthen its network further. Exceptional alumni have been supported through small research grants and sponsorship to become visiting fellows at such universities as the University of Chicago, George Mason University, and Washington University in St. Louis.

Conferences
In addition, the Institute organizes research conferences and seminars to discuss methodologies, analyze institutional issues, and critique and disseminate research studies.

Webinars
The Institute offers online webinars by faculty on topics such as land demarcation, dealng with the challenges of research, perspectives of an economics journal editor, and using qualitative methods to analyze institutions. These include Q&A sessions with the webinar audiences.

Website
The website provides scholarly papers and information on new institutional economics, the work of Ronald Coase, and the participants and activities of the Institute, freely accessible to the public. Information on Ronald Coase, a Nobel laureate and a founder of the field of new institutional economics, includes a complete list of his publications, selected speeches, and links to his works accessible online. There is a glossary for new institutional economics in multiple languages, and reading lists in the field. The site announces competitions for upcoming workshops and posts all the programs, lists of participants and faculty, and participants' research abstracts from past workshops. It includes several working papers by alumni and faculty. It also posts current job listings, others' conferences of interest, and research requests.

Board of Directors
The nine members of the Institute's Board of Directors are widely known leaders and scholars in new institutional economics. One director is a Nobel laureate. Six are professors of economics or emeritus professors of economics at leading universities around the world.

Founding
The Institute was founded in the year 2000. It was incorporated on February 28, 2000 in the state of Missouri.