----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- 
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 
 
------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ 
For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]