Preconditions and Limitations of Efficiency: Considering the Distributive Dimension of Price

Albino Barrera

Chapter Chapter 5 in Globalization and Economic Ethics, 2007, pp 119-141 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract The price mechanism has an allocative dimension because it induces economic agents to put their scarce resources to their most valued uses. This lays the groundwork for sustainable long-term growth and, thus, economic efficiency is unavoidable as a criterion of distributive justice and as a proximate end of market operations. However, efficiency can be neither the only nor necessarily the primary goal of economic life. After all, the price mechanism also has a distributive dimension. The same price movements that lead to the most efficient disposition of resources have the collateral effect of redistributing burdens and benefits within the economy.

Keywords: Social Capital; Human Capital; Distributive Justice; Knowledge Economy; Economic Agent (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-60976-1_5

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9780230609761

DOI: 10.1057/9780230609761_5

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().