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what is monotonicity and strict monotonicity in preferences?

Economics Asked on April 17, 2021

I am really confused between monotonic preferences and strictly monotonic preferences, I saw some video and read certain answer where it is mentioned that the

  • When preferences are monotone / weak monotonic preference, the
    consumer prefers more of both goods.
  • When preferences are strictly monotone or having strong monotonic
    preference, the consumer prefers more of one good but no less of
    the other.

(source: https://www.learnpick.in/questions/details/11169/what-is-a-monotonic-preference)

whereas when I read this other paper it says

  • Monotonicity means that if c1 contains more of some or all
    commodities, but no less of any, than c2 (c1 ≥ c2) then c1 ≿ c2.
  • Strict monotonicity means that if c1 contains more of each commodity
    than c2 (c1 > c2) then c1 strictly prefered c2

(source: http://www.math.uchicago.edu/~may/VIGRE/VIGRE2008/REUPapers/Shon.pdf)

I am confused as both the answers are quite contradicting as the (first as per sequence I mentioned) says that in strict preferences the consumer more of at least one good but no less of the other.

whereas (second as per sequence I mentioned) says in strict monotonicity we prefer more of both the goods. Also, I am able to understand the graphical representation of the monotonicity.
Please tell me where I am getting it wrong I am really stuck on this.
Thank you.

One Answer

The word monotonic means "always moving in the same direction", in our case, always going up.

Monotonic preferences mean that the customer always prefers more of a good.

This comes in two flavors:

  1. Strictly monotonic: More of one good is always preferred to less of that good.
  2. Weakly monotonic: More of one good is always equivalent or better than less of that good.

Correct answer by RegressForward on April 17, 2021

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