91A99-Utility.tex

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{pmmeta}
\pmcanonicalname{Utility}
\pmcreated{2013-03-22 12:51:59}
\pmmodified{2013-03-22 12:51:59}
\pmowner{Henry}{455}
\pmmodifier{Henry}{455}
\pmtitle{utility}
\pmrecord{8}{33203}
\pmprivacy{1}
\pmauthor{Henry}{455}
\pmtype{Definition}
\pmcomment{trigger rebuild}
\pmclassification{msc}{91A99}
\pmdefines{utility}
\pmdefines{utility function}

\endmetadata

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\begin{document}
Utility is taken to be an absolute, accurate measurement of how desirable something is; in particular, it differs from money in three key ways.

First, desire for it is linear (generally in economics and game \PMlinkescapetext{theory} a person with a lot of money receives less utility from an additional \PMlinkescapetext{fixed} amount of money than someone with very little money).

Second, when modeling a \PMlinkescapetext{real} situation, utility should include all external \PMlinkescapetext{factors} (the happiness received from doing a good deed, for instance).

Third, different people's utility is incomparable.  It is meaningless to ask whether one person gets more utility from a situation than another person does.  Utilities for a given person can be compared only to other utilities for that person.

A utility function is a function which specifies how much utility a player gets for a particular outcome.  It maps the space $S$ of all possible strategy profiles to $\mathbb{R}$.
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\end{document}