Glossary · Micro · Supply and demand

Invisible hand

Adam Smith’s image for how self-interested buyers and sellers, guided only by prices, end up producing what society wants as if led by an unseen hand. It is the intuition the First Welfare Theorem later made precise.

Related terms

More from supply and demand

Definitions are the start

See the term used, not just defined.

The full course teaches every term in context, with worked examples, interactive graphs and practice questions that remember what you get wrong.