Are Interpersonal Comparisons of Utility Indeterminate?
Author(s)
List, Christian
Abstract
On the orthodox view in economics, interpersonal comparisons of utility are not empirically meaningful, and “hence” impossible. To reassess this view, this paper draws on the parallels between the problem of interpersonal comparisons of utility and the problem of translation of linguistic meaning, as explored by Quine. I discuss several cases of what the empirical evidence for interpersonal comparisons of utility might be and show that, even on the strongest of these, interpersonal comparisons are empirically underdetermined and, if we also deny any appropriate truth of the matter, indeterminate.
