IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/0170.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Austrian Theory of the Marginal Use And of Ordinal Marginal Utility

Author

Listed:
  • J. Huston McCulloch

Abstract

The Austrian theory of the "marginal use" is restated and extended. It is found that the Austrian concept of marginal utility (as derived from the marginal use) is not dependent on cardinal utility, and indeed is consistent with "intrinsically ordinal" utility. In this system, diminishing (ordinal) marginal utility is an implication of rational choice, rather than an assumption. Examples of the rank-ordering on commodity space, derived from the underlying rank ordering on want-set space in conjunction with the technological relationship between goods and wants, are given in the cases of independent, rival, and complementary goods. In each case the derived commodity preferences are quasi-concave, which suggests that the Hicksian assumption of quasi-concavity is superfluous. In each case, the Auspitz and Lieben-Edgeworth-Pareto criterion for net complementarity or rivalness emerges. It is shown that while a negative cross substitution elasticity is not a necessary condition for net complementarity, it is a sufficient condition under not very restrictive conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • J. Huston McCulloch, 1977. "The Austrian Theory of the Marginal Use And of Ordinal Marginal Utility," NBER Working Papers 0170, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:0170
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w0170.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Morgenstern, Oskar, 1976. "The Collaboration between Oskar Morgenstern and John von Neumann on the Theory of Games," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 805-816, September.
    2. H. J. Davenport, 1902. "Proposed Modifications in Austrian Theory and Terminology," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 16(3), pages 355-384.
    3. George J. Stigler, 1950. "The Development of Utility Theory. I," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 58(4), pages 307-307.
    4. Kelvin J. Lancaster, 1966. "A New Approach to Consumer Theory," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 74(2), pages 132-132.
    5. Morgenstern, Oskar, 1972. "Thirteen Critical Points in Contemporary Economic Theory: An Interpretation," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 10(4), pages 1163-1189, December.
    6. J. Huston McCulloch & Jeffrey Smith, 1975. "An Austrian Proof of Quasi-Concave Preferences," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 70, Boston College Department of Economics.
    7. Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, 1954. "Choice, Expectations and Measurability," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 68(4), pages 503-534.
    8. George J. Stigler, 1937. "The Economics of Carl Menger," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 45(2), pages 229-229.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Clifford F. Thies, 2012. "The Relationship Between Enforcement and the Price of Marijuana," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 28(Fall 2012), pages 79-90.
    2. Chamilall Neelkant S., 2000. "La Genese Du Label Autricheen': La Pensee De Carl Menger," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 53-118, March.
    3. Jönsson, Kristian, 2004. "Effective Consumption and Non-Keynesian Effects of Fiscal Policy," Working Papers 2004:26, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    4. Li, Jiawei & Pollard, Simon & Kendall, Graham & Soane, Emma & Davies, Gareth, 2009. "Optimising risk reduction: An expected utility approach for marginal risk reduction during regulatory decision making," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 94(11), pages 1729-1734.
    5. Ruchdee Binmad & Mingchu Li & Zhen Wang & Nakema Deonauth & Chettupally Anil Carie, 2017. "An Extended Framework for Recovering From Trust Breakdowns in Online Community Settings," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-13, July.
    6. Senderski, Marcin, 2014. "Ecumenical foundations? On the coexistence of Austrian and neoclassical views on utility," MPRA Paper 67024, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Giuseppe Cavaliere, 2005. "Testing mean reversion in target-zone exchange rates," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(20), pages 2335-2347.
    8. Bryan Caplan, 1999. "The Austrian Search for Realistic Foundations," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 65(4), pages 823-838, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jean-Sébastien Lenfant, 2018. "Probabilising the consumer: Georgescu-Roegen, Marschak and Quandt on the modelling of the consumer in the 1950s," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 36-72, January.
    2. Ulrich Witt, 2016. "The transformations of utility theory: a behavioral perspective," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 211-228, October.
    3. van Damme, E.E.C., 2005. "Morgenstern, Oskar," Other publications TiSEM 5ce5c96d-c8d9-4a9c-8399-a, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    4. Christian Seidl, 2013. "The St. Petersburg Paradox at 300," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 46(3), pages 247-264, June.
    5. Kemp-Benedict, Eric, 2013. "Material needs and aggregate demand," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 16-26.
    6. Alejandro Agafonow, 2009. "Venezuelan Economic Laboratory. The Case of the Altruistic Economy of Felipe Pérez Martí," Working Papers wpdea0911, Department of Applied Economics at Universitat Autonoma of Barcelona.
    7. van Damme, E.E.C., 2004. "Oskar Morgenstern," Discussion Paper 2004-42, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    8. João Ricardo Faria & Damien Besancenot & Andreas J. Novak, 2011. "Paradigm Depletion, Knowledge Production And Research Effort: Considering Thomas Kuhn'S Ideas," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(4), pages 587-604, November.
    9. Joao R. Faria & Damien Besancenot & Andréas J. Novak, 2009. "Paradigm depletion, knowledge production and research effort," CEPN Working Papers halshs-00447302, HAL.
    10. Wilson, Robert R., 1969. "The Theory of Consumer Behavior: Production and the Allocation of Time," File Manuscripts, United States National Marine Fisheries Service, Economic Research Division, number 233601, January.
    11. Peter Howie & Sean M. Murphy & John Wicks, 2010. "An Application of a Stated Preference Method to Value Urban Amenities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(2), pages 235-256, February.
    12. Kurz, Heinz D., 2022. "Re-reading Carl Menger’s Grundsätze. A Book That “Cries Out To Be Surpassed”," Centro Sraffa Working Papers CSWP52, Centro di Ricerche e Documentazione "Piero Sraffa".
    13. Lucas, William F., 1995. "The 50th anniversary of TGEB," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 264-268.
    14. Berde, Éva & Petró, Katalin, 1995. "A különféle hasznosságfogalmak szerepe a közgazdaságtanban [The role of various notions of utility in economics]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(5), pages 511-529.
    15. Ward, Clement E. & Lusk, Jayson L. & Dutton, Jennifer M., 2008. "Implicit Value of Retail Beef Product Attributes," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 33(3), pages 1-18.
    16. Reynolds, Travis & Kolodinsky, Jane & Murray, Byron, 2012. "Consumer preferences and willingness to pay for compact fluorescent lighting: Policy implications for energy efficiency promotion in Saint Lucia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 712-722.
    17. Czajkowski, Mikołaj & Zagórska, Katarzyna & Letki, Natalia & Tryjanowski, Piotr & Wąs, Adam, 2021. "Drivers of farmers’ willingness to adopt extensive farming practices in a globally important bird area," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    18. Canessa, Carolin & Venus, Terese E. & Wiesmeier, Miriam & Mennig, Philipp & Sauer, Johannes, 2023. "Incentives, Rewards or Both in Payments for Ecosystem Services: Drawing a Link Between Farmers' Preferences and Biodiversity Levels," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    19. Hyowon Kim & Dong Soo Kim & Greg M. Allenby, 2020. "Benefit Formation and Enhancement," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 419-468, December.
    20. Anderson, Simon P. & Foros, Øystein & Kind, Hans Jarle, 2012. "Product quality, competition, and multi-purchasing," Discussion Papers 2012/9, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Business and Management Science.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:0170. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.