<p>I'm trying to get a rough idea of how common microeconomics concepts such as supply and demand are affected by &quot;meta-utility&quot; or &quot;second-order utility&quot; (I'm not sure what to call it), that is to say, when agents value things that are economic concepts that can be used to reason about their behavior.</p>
<p>For instance, humans may:</p>
<ul>
<li>value valuing things (having things or people to care about), or value valuing little (asceticism, minimalism)</li>
<li>value the experience of working towards a goal, regardless of how much they value the specific work and goal separately, and even value valuing work (&quot;young people these days...&quot;)</li>
<li>like or dislike cooperation or competition with other humans, regarless of what is a stake</li>
<li>like or dislike the experience of being in a negociation or a transaction, depending on context</li>
<li>etc.</li>
</ul>
<p>Can having subgroups of people with such preferences in a population affect well-known microeconomics models?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-26T05:35:54.143Z
1. Some of these seem rather irrelevant, e.g.; the apple demand curve is unaffected by me valuing valuing work.
Giskard
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-26T05:38:29.427Z
2. Do you have any reason to believe why the relevant ones, e.g.; disliking being in a transaction (while still wanting apples!) is not captured in the actual demand function/willingness to pay value? E.g.; I value an apple at \$5, but considering I have to buy one at the store/online and pay by credit card decreases this to \$4. In practice this means that people will observe my valuation as \$4.
Giskard
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-26T05:40:00.013Z
Thus it is a little hard to get what exactly it is that you are asking; to me the concept seems rather broad or vague.
Giskard
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-26T17:36:43.237Z
A better way might be to say I'm wondering about situations when values change over time in systematic ways. Say any painter working on a painting puts a high value on the future situation of having the completed painting, then value the painting much less as soon as it's completed. Can anything interesting be said about the society the painters live in? I'm not only interested in supply and demand but all economic phenomenons, really. This is indeed a broad question.
Nahoj
<microeconomics><utility>
How does second-order utility affect supply-and-demand equilibria?
Nahoj
# How does second-order utility affect supply-and-demand equilibria?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-09-25)

I'm trying to get a rough idea of how common microeconomics concepts such as supply and demand are affected by "meta-utility" or "second-order utility" (I'm not sure what to call it), that is to say, when agents value things that are economic concepts that can be used to reason about their behavior.

For instance, humans may:

* value valuing things (having things or people to care about), or value valuing little (asceticism, minimalism)
* value the experience of working towards a goal, regardless of how much they value the specific work and goal separately, and even value valuing work ("young people these days...")
* like or dislike cooperation or competition with other humans, regarless of what is a stake
* like or dislike the experience of being in a negociation or a transaction, depending on context
* etc.

Can having subgroups of people with such preferences in a population affect well-known microeconomics models?

**Tags:** microeconomics, utility
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: 1. Some of these seem rather irrelevant, e.g.; the apple demand curve is unaffected by me valuing valuing work.  
> **username_1**: 2. Do you have any reason to believe why the relevant ones, e.g.; disliking being in a transaction (while still wanting apples!) is not captured in the actual demand function/willingness to pay value? E.g.; I value an apple at \$5, but considering I have to buy one at the store/online and pay by credit card decreases this to \$4. In practice this means that people will observe my valuation as \$4.  
> **username_1**: Thus it is a little hard to get what exactly it is that you are asking; to me the concept seems rather broad or vague.  
> **username_0**: A better way might be to say I'm wondering about situations when values change over time in systematic ways. Say any painter working on a painting puts a high value on the future situation of having the completed painting, then value the painting much less as soon as it's completed. Can anything interesting be said about the society the painters live in? I'm not only interested in supply and demand but all economic phenomenons, really. This is indeed a broad question.  

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## 0 answers

