Making Sense of Adam Smith's Invisible Hand: Beyond Pareto Optimality and Unintended Consequences

Smith explicitly spells out the term “invisible hand” in only three texts, each in a different work. What is embarrassing to neoclassical welfare theory is that these explicit references have little to do with what came to be understood by the metaphor. In particular, the explicit reference to the invisible hand in The Wealth of Nations (WN) is not about the efficiency of the market in allocating resources. Rather, it is about, ironically, how impediments in the international capital market generate great benefits.