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Encyclopedia > Allocative efficiency

Allocative efficiency is the market condition whereby resources are allocated in a way that maximizes the net benefit attained through their use. Allocative efficiency refers to a situation in which the limited resources of a country are allocated in accordance with the wishes of consumers. An allocatively efficient economy produces an "optimal mix" of commodities. A firm is allocatively efficient when its price is equal to its marginal costs (that is, P = MC) in a perfect market. Look up Market in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Factors of production are resources used in the production of goods and services in economics. ... In economics, Marginal cost is the additional cost incurred in producing one more unit of a product. ...


Conditions

A firm is allocatively efficient when its price is equal to its marginal costs (P = MC) in a perfectly competitive market.


A market will be allocatively efficient if it is producing the right goods for the right people at the right price. An allocatively efficient market is therefore one which has no imperfections.


The demand curve is equal to the marginal utility curve i.e. the (private) benefit of the additional unit, while the supply curve is equal to the marginal cost curve i.e. the (private) cost of the additional unit. In a perfect market, there are no externalities, meaning that the demand curve is also equal to the social benefit of the additional unit, while the supply curve is equal to the social cost of the additional unit. Therefore, the market equilibrium, where demand meets supply, is also where marginal social benefit meets marginal social costs. At this point, net marginal social benefit is maximized, meaning this is the allocatively efficient outcome. The supply and demand model describes how prices vary as a result of a balance between product availability at each price (supply) and the desires of those with purchasing power at each price (demand). ... In economics, marginal utility is the additional utility (satisfaction or benefit) that a consumer derives from an additional unit of a commodity or service. ... Look up supply in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In economics and finance, marginal cost is the change in total cost that arises when the quantity produced changes by one unit. ...


If a market or firm is not Pareto efficient, then it cannot be allocatively efficient. If somebody could be made better off without making any other individual worse off, then clearly net benefit is not maximized, and therefore the market is not allocatively efficient. In the same way, an allocatively efficient market or firm is Pareto efficient - net benefit is maximized, therefore no individual can be made better off without another individual being made at least as worse off. Pareto efficiency, or Pareto optimality, is a central concept in game theory with broad applications in economics, engineering and the social sciences. ...


However, it is possible to have Pareto efficiency without allocative efficiency. By shifting resources in the economy, a gain in benefit to one individual could be greater than the loss in benefit to another individual. Therefore, before such a shift, the market is not allocatively efficient, but might be Pareto efficient.


When a market fails to achieve allocative efficiency and resources are not allocated efficiently, there is said to be market failure. Market failure may occur with imperfect knowledge, differentiated goods, resource immobility, concentrated market power, insufficient production, externalities, or inequality of consumers' and producers' bargaining powers. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...


See also

Pareto efficiency, or Pareto optimality, is an important notion in neoclassical economics with broad applications in game theory, engineering and the social sciences. ... Productive efficiency is when the economy is working on its production possibility frontier (PPF). ...

External links


  Results from FactBites:
 
sociology - Allocative efficiency (73 words)
Allocative efficiency is the market condition whereby resources are allocated in a way that maximises the net benefit attained through their use.
Allocative efficiency is also defined as the production of the quantity that is most beneficial to society.
A firm is allocatively efficient when its price is equal to its marginal costs (that is, P = MC).
HSD/Allocative Efficiency - Key Topics (7212 words)
Suggests that in market settings, there may be an inverse relationship between technical and allocative efficiency, with the former tending to improve and the latter to worsen (as a result of market-driven changes in the intervention mix).
Found that concern for allocative efficiency and health maximization, as usually envisaged by economists, is not completely shared by the general population, and that a cost-effectiveness approach to setting resource allocation priorities may therefore impose an 'excessively simple value system' on the decision process.
Is most useful vis-à-vis allocative efficiency for two things—its clear and simple introduction to the use of cost-effectiveness data in selecting between alternative interventions, and its summary of cost-effectiveness information for the six main categories of health-related interventions, specific details of which can be found in the textbook proper.
  More results at FactBites »

 

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