哈佛大学中级微观讲义Lecture03
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Lecture3:Utility.c2007Je¤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=x2for0x
012345678912345678910
xy
Non-monotone:y=sin2x+cos3x+5
0123454567
xy
So,akeyresultwewantisthefollowing:
5