Introduction

Few academic theories have achieved as much influence as the economics of competitive markets. Few eighteenth-century metaphors are as well remembered and widely quoted as Adam Smith’s invisible hand. Mathematical restatements of that metaphor are endorsed by the great majority of economists, and provide the framework for a large and growing number of decisions about public policy. Prominent economists have described the invisible hand as the most important contribution of economics to social theory (Arrow and Hahn 1971: 4). In the case of economics, the ivory tower casts a long shadow over social and political life.