utilitetsbegrebet

Utilitetsbegrebet refers to the concept of utility in Danish economics and social sciences. It denotes the level of satisfaction, well-being, or value that a person derives from goods, services, or outcomes. In modern theory utility is a representation of preferences rather than an intrinsic property of objects, and it is used to model choice under constraints and to assess welfare effects.

Historically, utilitetsbegrebet has its roots in utilitarian philosophy and was incorporated into neoclassical economics in the 19th and 20th centuries. Early approaches treated utility as cardinal and measurable, but contemporary microeconomics emphasizes ordinal utility: only the ranking of alternatives matters for predicting choice, while the exact numerical level of utility is not observed.

Key concepts associated with the utilitetsbegrebet include the utility function, marginal utility, and diminishing marginal utility. Consumers are assumed to maximize utility subject to a budget constraint, leading to choices that can be analyzed with indifference curves and budget lines. In theories of risk, expected utility extends the concept to uncertain outcomes, introducing ideas such as risk aversion.

In welfare economics, utility is used to define social welfare functions and to discuss Pareto efficiency, though interpersonally comparable utility remains contentious. The notion also interfaces with broader discussions of ethics and policy evaluation, including utilitarian considerations that aggregate individual utilities.

Criticisms of the utilitetsbegrebet focus on measurement and interpretability, as utility is not directly observable and can be highly subjective. Behavioral economics has highlighted systematic deviations from standard utility-maximizing behavior, leading to alternative approaches such as revealed preference, happiness research, and the capability approach.