<p>Correct this is impossible only with ordinal utility with cardinal utility you can make interpersonal comparisons.</p>

<p>The reason why you can’t do it with ordinal utility intuitively is that with ordinal utility that there is no measurable utility that individual derived from some good. Under ordinal utility you can only say that Lisa prefers ice cream to cereal, but you can’t say that she derives let’s say twice as big utility <span class="math-container">$u$</span>(cerial)=10 and <span class="math-container">$u$</span>(ice cream)=20. The same holds between people if there is Margaret who also prefers ice cream to cereal it does not mean they have the same utility. Their utility of ice cream and cereal could be same, greater or lower and all this would still be consistent with saying they both prefer ice cream to cereal.</p>

<p>However, with cardinal utility you can say that some person, let’s say Margaret, derived  30 utils from ice cream and Lisa derived just 20 utils so Margaret prefers ice cream more.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-11-20T18:57:49.993Z
2019-11-20T18:57:49.993Z
1muflon1
<p>Why is it not possible to compare utility across individuals?</p>

<p>Is this only impossible when we consider ordinal utility where we have no numerical unit?</p>

<utility>
Why are interpersonal utility comparisons not possible
Dobo
# Why are interpersonal utility comparisons not possible

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-11-20)

Why is it not possible to compare utility across individuals?

Is this only impossible when we consider ordinal utility where we have no numerical unit?

**Tags:** utility

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2019-11-20. Score: -1

Correct this is impossible only with ordinal utility with cardinal utility you can make interpersonal comparisons.

The reason why you can’t do it with ordinal utility intuitively is that with ordinal utility that there is no measurable utility that individual derived from some good. Under ordinal utility you can only say that Lisa prefers ice cream to cereal, but you can’t say that she derives let’s say twice as big utility $u$(cerial)=10 and $u$(ice cream)=20. The same holds between people if there is Margaret who also prefers ice cream to cereal it does not mean they have the same utility. Their utility of ice cream and cereal could be same, greater or lower and all this would still be consistent with saying they both prefer ice cream to cereal.

However, with cardinal utility you can say that some person, let’s say Margaret, derived 30 utils from ice cream and Lisa derived just 20 utils so Margaret prefers ice cream more.


---

