marginal utility
3
7.0
- noun
- /ˈmɑrdʒɪnəl juːˈtɪlɪti/
- Specialized
:
utilidad marginal
- The phenomenon known as "declining marginal utility" is well known.
- declining marginal utility
It's like money loses its marginal utility very quickly, right?
- It's like money loses its marginal utility very quickly, right?
- But in both Chicago and Austrian economics, we normally expect declining marginal utility.
- And that's beyond potentially any diminishing marginal utility of wealth, that sort of anxiety, stress, worries and so on.
Examples
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Was this a case of 'declining marginal utility' or something else?
Blog text (13) -
It's like money loses its marginal utility very quickly, right?
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How do you make the marginal utility ratio go up?
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But others might only get marginal utility from it, which means that the price needs to be rise.
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Much like anything else, there is marginal utility of money because, hey, there is only so much stuff you can buy.
Blog text (18) -
Put another way, wealth itself has a diminishing marginal utility.
Blog text (11) -
But is there diminishing marginal utility for wealth?
Blog text (18) -
The administrative costs alone of such claims would outweigh their marginal utility.
Academic text (1997) -
Financial contributions should continue to increase with wealth, since the marginal utility loss from giving a dollar goes down the more dollars one has to spend.
Academic text (2014) -
Economists study how marginal utility influences consumer choices when buying goods.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun 'utility' (satisfaction) is transparent, but 'marginal' in everyday B1 usage usually means 'small' or 'on the edge' rather than the technical sense 'additional/at the margin'. Because the phrase requires the economic technical sense of 'marginal = additional for one more unit', learners who only know common meanings of the constituents will likely not fully derive the MWE meaning without domain knowledge.
Etymology
Marginal utility comes from a simple image: marginal means 'extra' or 'at the edge' and utility means 'use' or 'happiness'. Imagine eating slices of pizza—each extra slice gives a little less pleasure, so marginal utility is the 'extra' satisfaction you get from one more unit.