摘要：Economists generally consider efficiency to be the equivalent of either maximizing the results of existing resources or minimizing resource consumption in order to achieve a set objective. Although apparently simple, the efficiency concept raises difficulties, either applied at an individual or at a social level. The present paper is a theoretical one, aimed at conceptual reevaluation, and it comprises three sections. In the first section we have presented the economic efficiency concept having as a point of departure the Pareto optimal and its main reviews. The second section is focused on the difficulties raised by the efficiency concept viewed mainly from the Austrian School's perspective. In the third section we aim to investigate the methodological perspectives of economics as a science, on the one hand and of state intervention, on the other. The most important conclusion of the present paper is that efficiency can not substitute to ethics but, on the contrary, ethics represents the ultimate criterion for efficiency judgments
关键词：economic efficiency; Pareto optimum; welfare economics; Austrian School
