Transferable utility and demand functions

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Chiappori, Pierre-Andre; Gugl, Elisabeth
• 署名单位: Columbia University; University of Victoria
• 刊物名称: THEORETICAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1933-6837
• DOI: 10.3982/TE3715
• 发表日期: 2020-11-01
• 页码: 1307-1333
• 关键词: Transferable utility; matching; Gorman polar form; characterization of preference profiles; many private and public goods

摘要

While many theoretical works, particularly in family economics, rely on the transferable utility (TU) assumption, its exact implications in terms of individual preferences have never been fully worked out. In this paper, we provide a set of necessary and sufficient conditions for a group to satisfy the TU property. We express these conditions in terms of both individual indirect utilities and individual demand functions. Last, we describe the link between this question and a standard problem in consumer theory (initially raised by Gorman 1953), and explain why a similar characterization in terms of direct utilities cannot obtain.