Abstract
In the course of reviewing some literature in welfare economics, I have encountered repeatedly a simple and treacherous mistake. Scholarship requires that I give citations, but kindness overrules. The authors will recognize their handiwork; mere readers are not so deeply concerned and can be served adequately by this brief warning. The mistake occurs when necessary conditions are to be found for a Pareto-efficient allocation of consumption or of both consumption and production. The typical objectionable argument can be schematized as follows: Utilities are functions of some variables x1, . . . , Xn. Typically, for individual A, UA = UA (X1, .. , xn). A Pareto-efficient choice of the x's is to be found, subject to the condition F(x1, . . . , x) = 0. (There may be several conditions and there may be inequalities, but since such complications are not at issue I shall neglect them.) Now comes the device. Form the social welfare function, say
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