Back to Bentham? Explorations of Experienced Utility

Daniel Kahneman, Peter P. Wakker and Rakesh Sarin

The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1997, vol. 112, issue 2, pages 375-405

Abstract: Two core meanings of 'utility' are distinguished. 'Decision utility' is the weight of an outcome in a decision. 'Experienced utility' is a hedonic quality, as in J. Bentham's usage. Experienced utility can be reported in real time (instant utility) or in retrospective evaluations of past episodes (remembered utility). Psychological research has documented systematic errors in retrospective evaluations, which can induce a preference for dominated options. The authors propose a formal normative theory of the total experienced utility of temporally extended outcomes. Measuring the experienced utility of outcomes permits tests of utility maximization and opens other lines of empirical research. Copyright 1997, the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Date: 1997
View citations in EconPapers

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tpr:qjecon:v:112:y:1997:i:2:p:375-405

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://mitpress.mit. ... me.tcl?issn=00335533

Access Statistics for this article

The Quarterly Journal of Economics is edited by Robert J. Barro, Edward L. Glaeser and Lawrence F. Katz

More articles in The Quarterly Journal of Economics from MIT Press
Series data maintained by Christopher F. Baum ().