in terms of utility-based Pareto optimality), rather than by accomplishments in promoting individual freedom. It is natural to suspect that there must be some links between welfareachievements and freedom-achievements (and also between failures in the respective areas), but we have to examine and scrutinize those links. We need to explore different aspects of individual freedom and their links, if any, with the nature of competitive market equilibria. The paper distinguishes between different aspects of freedom, involving in particular (i) substantive opportunities, and (ii) process considerations, such as decisional autonomy and immunity from encroachments. The competitive market mechanism is examined in the context of each of these considerations. In some respects the freedom-based approaches are more ancient than that of 'economic efficiency' (defined as efficiency in the space of utilities), but it is the latter that has by now become the standard procedure in economic theory for assessing what the market does or does not accomplish. This shift in