We study the willingness of some authors, including H. Varian in the 70’s, to elaborate a theory of justice that would fit standard general equilibrium theory in its Pareto’s canonical version. We first show, through an analysis of market socialism in the 30’s, that the Paretian ethic is...

The article focuses on the North vsWilliamson debate over institutions’ efficiency. It emphasizes a paradox that stems from the fact that both authors share a common set of explanatory concepts but at the same time conclude diversely on institutions’ efficiency. This paradox can be released...

The chapter analyses the uses made in the economic literature of the two modern names of the Paretian criterion: optimality and efficiency. Based on a large database of 10,000 EconLit referenced scientific publications, we use a lexicometric and historical approach to study the uses, instead of...