visibility Seen and Unseen

Visible and hidden effects of policies

format_quote Quotes

"In the economic sphere, an act, a habit, an institution, a law produces not only one effect, but a series of effects. Of these effects, the first alone is immediate; it appears simultaneously with its cause; it is seen. The other effects unfold only subsequently; they are not seen. Between a bad and a good economist, this is the whole difference: one confines himself to the visible effect; the other takes into account both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must be foreseen."

— Bastiat, Frédéric

menu_book That Which Is Seen, and That Which Is Not Seen

lightbulb Economic Thinking visibility Seen and Unseen arrow_forward Consequences error_outline Economic Fallacies analytics Economics trending_down Unintended Consequences scatter_plot Second-Order Effects psychology_alt Critical Thinking

View Full Quote

auto_stories Books

That Which Is Seen, and That Which Is Not Seen

person Bastiat, Frédéric

event 1850

Famous essay introducing the concept of opportunity cost and the broken window fallacy, arguing economists must consider both immediate visible eff...

visibility Seen and Unseen