I find myself in agreement with Pat here about who feel into, and who 
didn't fall into, the Stigler interpretation.

It seems as if those who either took the zero transaction costs world 
as a benchmark (ironically market failure theorists) and those who 
took it as an "as if" proposition (perfect market theorists), missed 
the invitation to inquiry that Coase offered for the institutions and 
deals that take place in the positive transaction cost world.  The 
economists at UCLA and University of Washington, e.g., Alchian, 
Demsetz, Cheung, Barzel, Higgs, etc. all went on a quest to discover 
the "deals" that were brokered in the world to minimize conflicts.

This led to the development of the economic theory of property rights 
and New Institutional Economics.

Coase's work is, in my opinion, perhaps among the 2 or 3 most 
important ideas of 20th century economics.  He demonstrated the 
logical inconsistency of Pigovianism, and he developed the analytical 
framework for comparative institutional analysis.

Pete Boettke