Social Sciences Brown Bag Seminar

Abstract: We develop a theory of measurement scales for utility functions, based on a generalization of the notion of numeraire commodity. Every sufficiently well-behaved utility is denominated in some scale of this form, and conversely, the choice of a compatible scale unit uniquely identifies utilities up to an additive constant. We define a profile of utilities to be interpersonally comparable precisely when they are denominated in a common measurement unit. We study when profiles of comparable utilities exist, as well as how a planner ought to aggregate them, and provide applications to social choice and welfare economics.