Abstract

SALCINES-ANDRES FAINA, J. Venancio. An approximation Mengeriano to the goal concept-order of needs: priority and jerarquia in Carl Menger. Inv. Econ [online]. 2001, vol.61, n.238, pp.37-67. ISSN 0185-1667.

This work takes as its starting point Carl Menger's theory of values. A) the concept of meta­ rankings of needs similar to that propounded by a. Sen (1977) in Rational Fools. B) this pa­ per defends the idea of priority in the Mengerian theory of value as opposed to the well established concept of heirarchy. This assumption of heirarchy has allowed the Austrian economists to avoid using a utilitarian approach to Menger and has instead facilitated the formulation of neoclassical tools based on Menger's Principies of Economics (1871). Toe concept of priority on the other hand is necessary in order to be able to visualize a meta­ranking of needs in the work of Menger, similar in the main to the idea of the meta-ranking of preferences formulated by Sen (1977). The concept of meta-ranking when applied to the theory of human behaviour augments the theory's explanitory potential in two ways; a) it provides us with a proceedural rationality mechanism based on a saving in the costs of information with respect to optimizing consumer purchases and b) it helps to better explain the effects of income levels.

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