Abstract
While markets are important mechanisms for coordination of social exchange
it has to be looked at their limits and preconditions as weH. This paper
advocates three claims: First, under conditions of externalities and asymmetric distribution
of information the eflicient functioning of markets depends on non-marktet
institutions. Second, social limitations of the expansion of markets reßect a valuerealm
in which society constitutes itself. These values, though they change, are normatively
immune against efliciency consideration. Third, the rational-actor model
of economics is insuflicient for the understanding of the non-rational preconditions
of markets and the embeddedness of markets in social values.
