Professor Steven Cheung, Ph.D.

1935 to Present

Although no longer present at the University of Washington when I arrived in 1987 part of my required reading in economics was an article on transaction costs in which Steven Cheung reasoned that an important motivation for the formation of the firm was a reduction in transaction costs. In his article Professor Cheung explained why the transport of goods along rivers was conducted not by small groups of organized bargemen, but by barge masters who hired bargemen to transport goods in small groups.

Professor Cheung left the United States to return to his Hong Kong homeland when he came under investigation for US tax fraud.

I could not help, but think of myself as a barge master in the mind of Candace Grass. She had not yet discovered my homeless state and likely associated my troupe with her own American high school education in which Chinese immigrants, known as Coolies, were employed by Lincoln's business associates to build the transcontinental railroad.

Candace Grass and I are approximately the same age.