Utility (economics)
In economics, utility is a measure of relative satisfaction. Given this measure, one may speak meaningfully of increasing or decreasing utility, and thereby explain economic behavior in terms of attempts to increase one's utility. Utility is often modeled to be affected by consumption of various goods and services, possession of wealth and spending of leisure time.
Utility is a useful construct as one of the key drivers in economics and rational choice theory. Utilitarian theory states that humans are utility maximizing machines and seeking utility is the primary driver for human behavior.
It is helpful to think of utility in two forms: personal utility and financial. Personal utility can be thought of as a person's wants, needs and desires. Personal utility cannot be directly measured, only behavior created by those wants.
Financial utility can be measured in terms of assets. In traditional economic theory, money does not intrinsically possess utility. However, money can be exchanged for things that do.
