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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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