HicksEntkopplung

HicksEntkopplung, often rendered as Hicksian decoupling, is a term used in German-language economics to describe the idea of separating or decoupling the effects that price or input changes have on a variable from other influencing factors within the Hicksian, or compensated, framework. In consumer theory this refers to isolating substitution effects by keeping utility constant, so that changes in relative prices can be analyzed independently of income effects. The concept emphasizes that substitution decisions can move differently from overall level changes caused by wealth or income.

Historische Grundlage und Bedeutung: The concept derives from John Hicks, who introduced compensated demand and the Hicksian demand function as a way to separate substitution effects from income effects in response to price changes. In German literature the term entkopplung is used to highlight how, under certain conditions, the substitution response can be studied apart from changes tied to nominal income, enabling a clearer welfare and demand analysis.

Anwendungen: In microeconomics HicksEntkopplung is applied to study consumer responses to price changes, elasticity estimation, and welfare analysis through compensated demand. In energy and growth accounting, the idea appears in decomposition approaches that aim to attribute observed changes in a macroeconomic variable (such as energy intensity or output growth) to substitution effects versus scale or efficiency improvements, using Hicksian or related decompositions.

Methoden und grenzen: Analysen rely on the existence of stable preferences and the ability to hold utility constant, which may be challenging in real-world data. The approach can be sensitive to the chosen functional form and the accuracy of price and income measures. It provides a conceptual tool for disentangling causal channels but does not eliminate all interpretation ambiguity.

Siehe auch: Hicksian demand, compensated demand, substitution effect, income effect, decomposition methods, growth accounting.