ANDREAS HEINRICH VOIGT AND THE HICKS‐ALLEN REVOLUTION IN CONSUMER THEORY |
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| Authors: | TORSTEN SCHMIDT CHRISTIAN E. WEBER |
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| Affiliation: | Schmidt: Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Whittemore School of Business and Economics, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824. Phone (603) 862‐3349, Fax (603) 862‐3383, E‐mail torsten. schmidt@unh.edu |
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| Abstract: | In 1893, Andreas Heinrich Voigt argued that utility admits only an ordinal characterization. We discuss the apparent impact of Voigt's now forgotten early argument for an ordinal approach to utility on later economists. Edgeworth cited Voigt's ordinal‐cardinal distinction several times in the Economic Journal, bringing both the concept and the terminology into Anglophone economics. In 1927, Rosenstein‐Rodan, too, cited Voigt's argument for ordinal utility. Since Hicks apparently learned the cardinal‐ordinal terminology from Edgeworth, and discussed utility theory and complementarity with Rosenstein‐Rodan, it appears that Voigt's 1893 article is the original source of ordinal utility in economics. (JEL B13, B21) |
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