In a recent piece published by the International Monetary Fund, Nobel Prize-winning economist Angus Deaton lambasted his own profession for ‘valorising efficiency over other ends’. Deaton’s attack is emblematic of widespread scepticism among the intelligentsia, with several distinguished economists renouncing conventional wisdom in favour of glamorous theories of social justice.

In economics, an efficient outcome is one that maximises total benefits to society irrespective of how those benefits are distributed.