utility function

British  

noun

1. a function relating specific goods and services in an economy to individual preferences

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Example Sentences

People value the cash that they can spend on what they desire more highly than receiving goods and or services of the same value but which might not so closely match their own utility function.

From Forbes • Jun. 9, 2015

My own suggestion is simply to have a universal basic income and then everyone can purchase whatever it is that satisfies their own personal utility function.

From Forbes • Jun. 9, 2015

If there were 1,000 outcomes, an equivalent utility function could be defined by giving the most favored outcome a value of 1,000, the second best outcome a value of 999 and so forth.

From New York Times • Jan. 25, 2011

We then propose a measure — a ranking mechanism called a utility function — that follows people’s preferences.

From New York Times • Jan. 25, 2011

In other words, people have many utility functions running simultaneously - or, at best, one utility function with many variables and coefficients.

From After the Rain : how the West lost the East by Vaknin, Samuel