In economics, economic equilibrium is a state where economic forces such as supply and demand are balanced and in the absence of external influences the (equilibrium) values of economic variables will not change.

Quotes

• There's a lot of misplaced criticism of equilibrium models. For explaining 1950-, 1960-, 1970-type business cycles, they're a lot more robust than some people give them credit for. The failure of wages and prices to adjust is no problem because there's a lot of reasons, many of them coming from contract theory and models of enduring relationships, that would lead one not to expect the current real wage/price to adjust to clear the current labor market. [...] What we mean by equilibrium is essentially two things. First, we set out to explain data on prices and quantities as resulting from the interaction of individual decisions; that's the key thing together with the notion that markets clear in some sense. That doesn't mean everybody has a job every period. The notion of clearing may be much more complicated and may involve lotteries. There are various responses why workers are unemployed. [...] Another thing is that these environments are sufficiently complicated so that it's not automatic that equilibria are optimal.
  • Thomas J. Sargent, in Conversations with Economists (1983) by Arjo Klamer

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