The Competitive Equilibrium and Allocative Efficiency
At the competitive equilibrium, the value society places on a good is equivalent to the value of the resources given up to produce it (marginal benefit equals marginal cost). By definition, this ensures allocative efficiency (the additional value society places on another unit of the good is equal to what society must give up in resources to produce it).
Note that microeconomic analysis does NOT assume additive utility nor does it assume any interpersonal utility tradeoffs. Efficiency therefore refers to the absence of Pareto improvements. It does not in any way opine on the fairness of the allocation (in the sense of distributive justice or equity). An 'efficient' equilibrium could be one where one player has all the goods and other players have none (in an extreme example). This is efficient in the sense that one may not be able to find a Pareto improvement - which makes all players (including the one with everything in this case) better off (for a strict Pareto improvement), or not worse off.
Read more about this topic: Competitive Equilibrium
Famous quotes containing the words competitive, equilibrium and/or efficiency:
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—Anne Roiphe (20th century)
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—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)
“I’ll take fifty percent efficiency to get one hundred percent loyalty.”
—Samuel Goldwyn (1882–1974)