Markets and Freedoms: Achievements and Limitations of the Market Mechanism in Promoting Individual Freedom
Author(s)
Sen, Amartya
Abstract
Using the perspective of individual freedom, I argue in this paper for a reinterpretation of what a mechanism of competitive markets is supposed to do, and a reassessment of what it can be expected to achieve. Forceful use is often made of the language and rhetoric of “freedom” in defending the market mechanism, e.g., in the form of claims that the market system makes people “free to choose,” to use Friedman and Friedman’s (1980) evocative words. This paper is partly an attempt to follow the lead suggested by Hicks, to re-evaluate the market mechanism in terms of its contributions, and limitations, in promoting individual freedoms.
