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Step-by-step explanation:
Utility is a physiological fact that implies the wanting the satisfying power of a good or service. It differs from person to person, as it relies on a person's mental attitude. The measurability of utility is always a controversial subject. The two primary theories for utility are Ordinal Utility and Cardinal Utility. Many traditional economists proposed a view that utility is measured quantitatively like length, height, weight, temperature, etc. This concept is termed a Cardinal Utility. On the other hand, Ordinal Utility expresses the utility of a commodity in terms of more than or less than. Read the article below to understand the difference between Cardinal Utility and Ordinal Utility.
What is an Ordinal Utility?
Ordinal Utility states that the satisfaction a consumer gets after consuming a good or service cannot be scaled in numbers, whereas, these things can be arranged in the order of preference. Two English economists, John Hicks and R.J. Allen 1930 argued that the consumer behavior theory should be introduced based on Ordinal Utility. According to the ordinal approach, utility is a psychological phenomenon like happiness, satisfaction, and welfare. The ordinal theory is highly subjective and differs across individuals. Therefore, it cannot be measured in quantifiable terms.
The function that represents utility of a product according to its preference, but does not provide any numerical figure, is known as an Ordinal Utility. In simpler words, this theory affirms that it is relevant to ask which item is better as compared to others instead of how good is that product. For example, a BMW car is favored more than a Toyota car, but it cannot be determined by what percentage.
Apart from showing a mathematical function, a consumer’s preference can be demonstrated graphically through indifference curves. It becomes easy when there are two types of commodities x and y. Each indifference curve provides coordinates (x,y) when (x1, y1) and (x2, y2) lie on the same curve line and (x1, y1) ~ (x2, y2).
This is an example of an indifference curve map where the preference of goods are shown but not their quantity. Each of the curves represents a combination of two services or goods. The consumers are equally satisfied with the goods and services. The more distant a curve is from the origin, the higher its utility level.
The utility according to this approach can be measured in relative terms such as less than and greater than. This approach states that consumer behavior can be explained in terms of preferences or rankings. For example, a consumer may prefer soft drinks over hard drinks. In such a case, the soft drink would have 1st rank, while 2nd rank would be given to hard drinks
Therefore, as per the Ordinal Utility approach, a consumer observes different pairs of two commodities which would provide him/her the same level of satisfaction. Among these pairs, he/she may prefer one commodity over the other based on how he/she ranks them in order of utility. This implies that utility can be ranked qualitatively rather than quantitatively.
Do you know: In 1934 John Hicks and Roy Allen produced the first paper which declared Ordinal Utility.
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What is Cardinal Utility?
According to classical economists, utility is a quantitative concept that can be measured in terms of a number. Hence they introduced the concept of measuring utility using a cardinal approach. According to this concept, the utility can be expressed similarly to how weight and height are expressed. However, the economists lacked a precise unit for utility. Hence, they derived a psychological unit termed as ‘Util’. Util is not regarded as a standard unit because it varies from person to person, place to place, and time to time. For example, if a person assigns 30 utils to a pizza and 20 utils to a chowmein, we can understand that the pizza has double the capacity to satisfy what humans want.
As util is not a standard unit for measuring utility, many economists, including Alfred Marshall suggested measurement of utility in terms of money that consumers are willing to pay for a commodity. If each rupee is equal to 1 util, a pizza worth Rs 30 has 30 utils and a chow min worth Rs 20 has 20 utils. Hence, the consumer who consumes burgers will yield utility of 30 utils and those who consume chow min will yield utility of 20 utils.
The supply and demand of a product decide its price. Moreover, a person’s desire for a product depends on these three factors:
Price of the item
Income of a person
The cost of other related items
Application of Cardinal Utility
Following are the different applications of Cardinal Utility:
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