Markets, Discovery, and Social Problems

John Meadowcroft

Chapter Chapter 2 in Accepting the Invisible Hand, 2010, pp 23-41 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract This chapter considers the ability of markets to solve social problems. It will be argued that it is helpful to identify two distinct categories of social problem: universal social problems that all advanced societies face, the most relevant of which is the necessity of efficiently coordinating the economic actions of the millions of people dispersed throughout such a society, and those social problems that differ by time and place and may be described as being socially constructed. Markets can solve both these types of social problem, but allowing markets to do so means accepting that the solutions and outcomes that emerge may be incongruent with predetermined views of the “correct” solutions or “right” outcomes held by policymakers.

Keywords: Social Problem; Public Choice; Private School; Secondhand Smoke; Advanced Society (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:pfschp:978-0-230-11431-9_2

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DOI: 10.1057/9780230114319_2

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