Value

Value is a broad concept that refers to the importance, usefulness, or worth that people assign to objects, actions, ideas, or states of affairs. It can be personal or shared, and it can be described as intrinsic or instrumental. The term appears in many fields, including economics, philosophy, mathematics, culture, and everyday life.

In economics, value is linked to how much someone is willing to give up to obtain something. Market value is often expressed as price, but economists distinguish value in use (the utility a person derives from a good) from value in exchange (what the good commands in a market). Value is affected by marginal utility, scarcity, and preferences, and is measured in various ways, including willingness to pay, opportunity cost, or net benefits. Valuation can be complicated by externalities, public goods, and information asymmetry.

In ethics and aesthetics, value concerns what is good, desirable, or worthwhile. Philosophers distinguish intrinsic value, which something has in itself, from instrumental value, which it has as a means to an end. Cultural values are shared beliefs that guide behavior and judgments within a group, and they can differ across societies and over time.

In mathematics and related disciplines, a value is a specific quantity or result produced by a computation, expression, or variable. In computing, value types and data values represent stored information.

Valuation methods aim to quantify value for decision making. They include market-based approaches, cost–benefit analysis, hedonic pricing, and appraisal. Challenges include subjectivity, uncertainty, distributional effects, and the difficulty of measuring nonmarket impacts. Understanding value involves considering context, stakeholder perspectives, and the purpose of the valuation.