哈佛大学中级微观讲义Lecture03

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Lecture3:Utility.c󰀃2007Je¤reyA.Miron

Outline:

1.Utility:Ade…nition

2.Monotonicfunctions

3.CardinalUtility

4.Constructingautilityfunction

5.Examplesofutilityfunctions

6.Preview:MarginalUtilityandtheMRS

1Introduction

Let’ssummarizewhatwehavedonesofar.

Wehavedescribedtheconstraintsthataconsumerfaces,i.e.,discussedthebudget

constraint.

Inmanycases,thisconstraintissimple,whetherasanequationorasagraph.

Butinothers,itgetsmessier.

Wehavealsodiscussedawayofmodelingwhattheconsumerwants.Wereferred

totheseaspreferences;whilewehaveonlydescribedthemgraphically,theycanalso

bedescribedalgebraically,sometimesinasimpleway,aswewillsee.

Sofarwehavesaidnothingaboutwhattheconsumerisgoingtochoose;that

is,wehavenotmodeledtheproblemtheconsumerfaces,althoughithasobviously

beenimplied,andyoumayhaveseenitinotherclasses.But,wewon’tdothatfor

anotherlectureorso.

Instead,wearenextgoingtodiscussanotherwayofdescribingtheconsumer’s

desires/preferences.

1Thisapproachisknownastheutilityfunctionapproach;wearegoingtothink

abouteachpossibleconsumptionbundleasgivingtheconsumersomeamountof

“utility,”whateverthatis.We’llde…neitmoreexplicitlyshortly.

Theearlyversionsofconsumertheoryfocusedonutility,withoutanymention

ofpreferences,assumingwecouldassignauniqueutilitynumbertoeverychoiceor

bundle.Theseutilitynumbershadsomesortofindependentmeaning.Inparticular,

wecouldaddandsubtractthemacrosspeople.

Moderneconomictheorydoesnotproceedinthisway.Itfocusesinsteadon

preferences,andsimplyassumesthatgivenvariousbundles,consumerscanrank

themandmakechoices.

Utilityturnsouttobe,usually,aconvenientwaytosummarizethesepreferences,

butitisthepreferencesthatarefundamental.

Onceagain,thereasonwearegoingtomovetoutilityfunctionsfrompreferences

isthattheyareeasiertoworkwith.Butitisusefultounderstandthattheyare

lessfundamentalthanpreferencesperse.

Inparticular,theutilitynumbershavenocardinalmeaning;theysimplyindicate

that,ifonebundlehashigherutilitythananother,thismeanstheoneispreferredto

theother.Theactualvalueoftheutilitynumbersisirrelevant,sortoflikerankings

atagolftournament.

Notealsothateconomistsuseboththepreferenceapproachandtheutilityfunci-

tonapproach.Wewanttounderstandtherelationbetweenthem.Formanypur-

poses,thetwoapproachesareequivalent.Also,inmanysettingsitisnotobvious

whyonesneedstohavebotheredwiththepreferenceapproach.Inafewcrucial

cases,however,itmattersalot,andthatiswhyweneedtodoboth.

We’llseethismoreexplicitlylaterinthecourse.

2Utility:ADe…nition

Autilityfunctionisawayofassigningnumberstoeverypossibleconsumptionbundle

insuchawaythatmorepreferredbundlesgetassignedlargernumbersthanless-

preferredbundles.

2Thatis,XispreferredtoYifandonlyiftheutilityofXislargerthantheutility

ofY.Insymbols,

(x1;x2)󰀅(y1;y2)i¤u(x1;x2)>u(y1;y2):

Thisreliesonlyontheorderingofthebundles,nottheabsolutenumbers.

Thefunctionuisreferredtoasanordinalutilityfunction.

Toillustrate,consideraconsumerwhoprefersthebundleXtothebundleYand

thebundleYtothebundleZ.

U1U2U3X1008-7

Y10.6-82

Z10-1111

Thenumbersineachcolumnaretheutilitiesassignedtoeachbundlebythreepossible

utilityfunctions.

Thepointofthisisthateachofthethreesetofnumbersisavalidutilityfunction.

Sinceonlyrankingmatters,auniquewaytoassignutilitiesdoesnotexist.

Ifoneutilityfunctionexiststhatcorrespondstoaparticularsetofpreferences,

thenanin…nitenumberexists.

Consideru(x1;x2).Then2u(x1;x2)givessameranking.

Indeed,anymonotonic,increasingtransformationgivesthesameranking.

3MonotonicTransformations

Amonotonicallyincreasingtransformationisafunctionfwiththepropertythatit

preservestheorderofnumbers.Thatis,iffisamonotonicallyincreasingfunction,

and

3u1>u2

then

f(u1)>f(u2)

Examplesofmonoticfunctionsincludethefollowing:

Multiplicationbyapositivenumber

Addingapositivenumber

Takingtheln

Exponentiation

Raisingtoanoddpower

Raisingtoanevenpowerforfunctionsde…nedovernon-negativevalues

Stepfunctions,assumingtheyareincreasing

ExamplesoffunctionsthatareNOTmonotonicallyincreasinginclude:

Sinorcosine

Squaringifthefunctionisde…nedovernegativevalues

Multiplyingbyanegative

Mathematically,falwayshasapositivederivative,assumingitisdi¤erentiable.

Moregenerally,falwayshasapositivedi¤erence.

4Graph:MonotoneandNon-MonotoneFunctions

Monotone:y=x2for0󰀄x

012345678912345678910

xy

Non-monotone:y=sin2x+cos3x+5

0123454567

xy

So,akeyresultwewantisthefollowing:

5