INVISIBLE HAND: The notion that buyers and sellers, consumers and producers, households and businesses, pursuing their own self-interests, do what's best for the economy--automatically, without any government intervention, as if guided by an invisible hand. This invisible hand was essential to the economic analysis of markets in Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations. It has continued to be cornerstone in conservative economic policies that call for limits on government intervention in the economy.

     See also | market | free market | laissez faire | free enterprise | Smith, Adam | efficiency | competition | allocation | The Wealth of Nations | conservative | liberal |

INVISIBLE HAND, AmosWEB GLOSS*arama, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2018. [Accessed: September 20, 2018].

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The process of obtaining the highest possible level of profit through the production and sale of goods and services. The profit-maximization assumption is the guiding principle underlying production by a firm. In particular, it is assumed that firms undertake actions and make the decisions that increase profit. The profit-maximization assumption is the production counterpart to the utility-maximization assumption for consumer behavior.

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