Consider Adam Smith’s concept of the “invisible hand,” which implies that a market equilibrium is efficient if perfect competition prevails and well-defined property rights exist. Contrary to what many critics suppose, mainstream economists do not assume that these ideal conditions are always present.
以亚当·斯密的“看不见的手”的概念为例。这一概念认为市场均衡是有效的，如果竞争是完美的并且产权是明晰的话。与许多批评主张相反，主流经济学家并不假设这些理想条件总是成立。相反，经济学家一般将这些条件作为分析市场失灵的基准。他们就像是嗅探犬，寻找经济中的缺陷，并提出如何通过明智的政府干预纠正这些缺陷。