[Related to the Apply the Concept on page 57] The
late Nobel Prize–winning economist Kenneth Arrow of
Stanford University once wrote that the argument that the
outcomes in a market system “may be very different from,
and even opposed to, intentions is surely the most important intellectual contribution that economic thought has
made.” Briefly explain how it is possible for the outcomes
in a market system to be different from what firms and
consumers intended them to be. Why is this idea such an
important intellectual contribution?
Sources: Kenneth J. Arrow, “Economic Equilibrium,” Encyclopedia of
the Social Sciences, 1968; and Encyclopedia.com.