Imagine you and a friend are walking down the streetand a $100 bill magically appears. You would likelyshare the money evenly, each taking $50, deeming thisthe fairest division. According to Pareto efficiency, however,any allocation of the $100 would be optimal — including thedistribution you would likely prefer: keeping all $100 foryourself.Pareto efficiency says that an allocation is efficient if anaction makes some individual better off and no individualworse off. The concept was developed by Vilfredo Pareto, anItalian economist and sociologist known for his applicationof mathematics to economic analysis, and particularly for hisManual of Political Economy (1906).Pareto used this work to develophis theory of pure economics,analyze “ophelimity,” his ownterm indicating the power ofgiving satisfaction, and introduceindifference curves. Indoing so, he laid the foundationof modern welfare economics.Because the two individualsin the opening example willnot lose any of the money theyoriginally held, they cannot endup worse off than they started.Any additional amount ofmoney that they receive willmake them better off. If oneindividual keeps all $100, theother will be as well off as hewas before the money appeared. Whether the money issplit evenly or one individual keeps more than the other,Pareto efficiency is achieved.Consider another example: the sale of a used car. Theseller may value the car at $10,000, while the buyer iswilling to pay $15,000 for it. A deal in which the car is soldfor $12,500 would be Pareto efficient because both theseller and the buyer are better off as a result of the trade. Inthis case, they are better off by the same amount: $2,500.However, any price between $10,000 and $15,000 is Paretoefficient because the seller receives more value in moneythan the value he places on the car, and the buyer values thecar more than the money he pays for it.Pareto efficiency has applications in game theory,multicriteria decisionmaking, engineering, and many ofthe social sciences. It is a central principle in economics.In general, an economic allocation problem has severalpossible Pareto efficient outcomes. In the marketplace, thecompetitive equilibrium is typically included among them.A major drawback of Pareto efficiency, some ethicists claim,is that it does not suggest which of the Pareto efficientoutcomes is best.Furthermore, the concept does not require an equitabledistribution of wealth, nor does it necessarily suggest takingremedial steps to correct for existing inequality. If theincomes of the wealthy increase while the incomes of everyoneelse remain stable, such a change is Pareto efficient.Martin Feldstein, an economist at Harvard University andpresident of the National Bureau of Economic Research,explains that some see this as unfair. Such critics, while concedingthat the outcome is Paretoefficient, might complain: “I don’thave fewer material goods, but Ihave the extra pain of living in amore unequal world.” In short,they are concerned about not onlya person’s absolute position butalso his relative position, andargue that, as a result, Paretiananalysis has little to offer.Feldstein rejects this argumentand maintains that Pareto efficiencyis a good guiding principlefor economists, even if someactions that promote Paretoefficiency lead to increasesin income inequality. Instead,Feldstein argues that we shouldfocus on poverty, and to do thiswe should not stifle changes that would increase the totaleconomic pie just because they would also produceoutcomes that would initially increase inequality.In general, rich societies can more effectively deal withsuch problems than poor ones. For instance, would yourather live in a country that has almost perfect incomeequality but is desperately poor or one that has quite a bitof income inequality but is rich enough to help out its mostunfortunate citizens? Most people would choose the latter.That said, Pareto efficiency may not be the onlybenchmark that a society may wish to use in choosingbetween alternative public policies. It can be a very helpfulguide — and, indeed, has enriched economic analysis agreat deal — but as Pareto himself wrote, “Political economydoes not have to take morality into account. But one whoextols some practical measure ought to take into account not
only the economic consequences, but also the moral,
religious, political, etc., consequences.”
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