| 单词 | utility |
| 释义 | utility A synonym for individual welfare. A utility function gives an individual's welfare as an increasing function of the various goods they consume and a decreasing function of various types of work performed. Consumers are assumed to allocate their time and spend their available income so as to maximize their utility function. An indirect utility function gives utility as an increasing function of non-work income and wage rates for various forms of work, and a decreasing function of consumer goods prices, assuming that optimum choices of work and consumption are made subject to these prices. Economists have differed as to whether utility should be regarded as cardinal or ordinal: each view gives rise to problems. cardinal utility assumes that utility can be measured. While economists have found no practical way of doing this, without the assumption that it is possible there is no way of analysing decisions under uncertainty, or of answering questions about income distribution. ordinal utility assumes that consumers can only order the benefits they get from different combinations of work and goods, but cannot measure the differences between them. To a strict believer in ordinal utility the relative merits of different distributions of income are a matter of complete agnosticism, and changes can be recommended only subject to the Pareto-condition that somebody gains and nobody loses. This view makes most interesting questions about economic policy unanswerable. See also: cardinal utility, expected utility, marginal utility, ordinal utility, public utility, and total utility |
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