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I was introduced to this list some years ago when I was trying to track 
down a definition of value attributed to Irving Fisher:  "the present worth 
of anticipated future benefits."  I never did find the exact source.  In 
any case I seldom have anything to contribute, but here perhaps I do. 
 
The practical discipline of valuation which I suppose is applied economics 
makes a crucial distinction among types of value.  Market value or value in 
exchange... worth as demonstrated by the aggregate of buyers and sellers 
when they transact... is only one type of value.  Market value requires 
utility, transferability and scarcity.  Value in use by contrast requires 
only utility and may exist in the absence of a market.  These differences 
are noted by Halbert C. Smith and Gerry D. Belloit in Real Estate 
Appraisal, 2nd Ed. 1987.  They note that the distinction was made by Adam 
Smith. 
 
There are also other types of value including investment value. 
 
The point seems to be that the same product or good or service offers 
different benefits or net benefits to different actors... I've come to call 
them beneficiaries and so has different worth. 
 
This basic idea is set forth in all the generally accepted standards of 
valuation practice.  These standards all use worth and value in a very 
similar if not interchangable manner. 
 
Scott Cullen 
 
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