Armen Alchian: Profit

Armen Alchian was American economist. Explore interesting quotes on profit.

Armen Alchian: 22 quotes0 likes

“Where foresight is uncertain, “profit maximization” is meaningless as a guide to specifiable action.”

Source: "Uncertainty, Evolution, and Economic Theory", 1950, p. 221

“The greater the uncertainties of the world, the greater is the possibility that profits would go to venturesome and lucky rather than to logical, careful, fact-gathering individuals.”

"Uncertainty, Evolution, and Economic Theory", 1950

“Neither perfect knowledge of the past nor complete awareness of the current state of the arts gives sufficient foresight to indicate profitable action. Even for this more restricted objective, the pervasive effects of uncertainty prevent the ascertainment of actions which are supposed to be optimal in achieving profits. Now the consequence of this is that modes of behavior replace optimum equilibrium conditions as guiding rules of action. Therefore, in the following sections two forms of conscious adaptive behavior are emphasized.”

"Uncertainty, Evolution, and Economic Theory", 1950