Pareto-optimality

Pareto-optimality, a concept of efficiency used in the social sciences, including economics and political science, named for the Italian sociologist Vilfredo Pareto.

A state of affairs is Pareto-optimal (or Pareto-efficient) if and only if there is no alternative state that would make some people better off without making anyone worse off. More precisely, a state of affairs x is said to be Pareto-inefficient (or suboptimal) if and only if there is some state of affairs y such that no one strictly prefers x to y and at least one person strictly prefers y to x. The concept of Pareto-optimality thus assumes that anyone would prefer an option that is cheaper, more efficient, or more reliable or that otherwise comparatively improves one’s condition.

The two so-called fundamental theorems of welfare economics contain the most-famous applications of the concept of Pareto-optimality. The first theorem states conditions under which the allocation associated with any competitive market equilibrium is Pareto-optimal, whereas the second theorem states conditions under which any Pareto-optimal allocation can be achieved as a competitive market equilibrium following the use of lump-sum transfers of wealth.

The set of states of affairs and the set of people whose preferences are relevant for determining Pareto-optimality depend on the context. For example, in the first and second fundamental theorems of welfare economics, the set of people includes every member of the economy, and the set of possible states includes every technologically feasible allocation of commodities. Alternatively, the equilibrium created by the model known as the prisoner’s dilemma (the Nash equilibrium) is said to be Pareto-suboptimal because each individual prefers an outcome different from the outcome resulting from the equilibrium strategies.

The concept of Pareto-optimality is often not very discriminating. A state of affairs x is Pareto-optimal provided that for any alternative state of affairs y, one can find at least one person who strictly prefers x to y. If one takes a wide view of preferences and includes preferences informed by moral principles or other sentiments, such as envy, then many states of affairs satisfy that condition.

In contrast, the concept of potential Pareto-efficiency (also known as Kaldor-Hicks efficiency) is more discriminating and finds wider use in economics. According to that concept, a state of affairs x is inefficient if there is some alternative state of affairs y such that, in y, there is a set of possible lump-sum transfers of wealth from those who are better off under y to those who are worse off, such that, with those transfers, everyone is at least as well-off under y as under x.

Economists typically find Pareto-optimality to be extremely plausible—indeed, indisputable—as a condition that good laws, policies, and allocations must satisfy, although few would claim that it suffices to make a law, policy, allocation of commodities, and so on, good. A common reason (outside economics) for rejecting it, even as a necessary condition for a state of affairs to be good, is its reliance on subjective preferences.