On the notion of measurable utility on a connected and separable topological space: an order isomorphism theorem

TL;DR

This paper introduces a formal notion of measurable utility on connected, separable topological spaces, proving an order isomorphism theorem that generalizes classical utility representation results.

Contribution

It defines measurable utility in a topological setting and proves a representation theorem establishing existence and uniqueness of an order isomorphism to the real line.

Findings

Proves a representation theorem for measurable utility functions.

Establishes conditions for existence and uniqueness of order isomorphisms.

Generalizes classical utility representation results to topological spaces.

Abstract

The aim of this article is to define a notion of cardinal utility function called measurable utility and to define it on a connected and separable subset of a weakly ordered topological space. The definition is equivalent to the ones given by Frisch in 1926 and by Shapley in 1975 and postulates axioms on a set of alternatives that allow both to ordinally rank alternatives and to compare their utility differences. After a brief review of the philosophy of utilitarianism and the history of utility theory, the paper introduces the mathematical framework to represent intensity comparisons of utility and proves a list of topological lemmas that will be used in the main result. Finally, the article states and proves a representation theorem for a measurable utility function defined on a connected and separable subset of a weakly ordered topological space equipped with another weak order on its cartesian product. Under some assumptions on the order relations, the main theorem proves existence and uniqueness, up to positive affine transformations, of an order isomorphism with the real line.