Amartya Sen’s impossibility of a Paretian liberal underscores the trade-off between two widely applied social principles—liberalism and Pareto-optimality: “If someone does have certain liberal values, then he [or she] may have to eschew his [or her] adherence to Pareto optimality” (Sen 1970a:157). This paper extends the Paretian liberal paradox to the firm, understood as a socio-economic institution with a hierarchical nature and aimed at enhancing the efficiency of transactions in a world where the costs of market transactions are positive and relevant (Coase 1937). The paper shows that, even if the firm’s hierarchical nature ensures Pareto optimality, it may conflict with liberal values.

Extending Amartya Sen’s Paretian liberal paradox to a firm’s hierarchy / Vatiero, Massimiliano. - (2022), pp. 357-373. [10.1007/978-3-030-97106-9_14]

Extending Amartya Sen’s Paretian liberal paradox to a firm’s hierarchy

Vatiero, Massimiliano
2022-01-01

Abstract

Amartya Sen’s impossibility of a Paretian liberal underscores the trade-off between two widely applied social principles—liberalism and Pareto-optimality: “If someone does have certain liberal values, then he [or she] may have to eschew his [or her] adherence to Pareto optimality” (Sen 1970a:157). This paper extends the Paretian liberal paradox to the firm, understood as a socio-economic institution with a hierarchical nature and aimed at enhancing the efficiency of transactions in a world where the costs of market transactions are positive and relevant (Coase 1937). The paper shows that, even if the firm’s hierarchical nature ensures Pareto optimality, it may conflict with liberal values.
2022
Philosophy and Business Ethics: Organizations, Csr and Moral Practice
Cham, Switzerland
Springer Nature Switzerland AG
978-3-030-97105-2
978-3-030-97106-9
Vatiero, Massimiliano
Extending Amartya Sen’s Paretian liberal paradox to a firm’s hierarchy / Vatiero, Massimiliano. - (2022), pp. 357-373. [10.1007/978-3-030-97106-9_14]
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11572/338358
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