Disutility

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Updated: Aug 20, 2021

The opposite or negative of utility. Someone would have to be paid to ‘consume’ a good which yielded disutility or would pay to reduce ‘consumption’ of such a good; e.g. people install double glazing to reduce ‘consumption’ of noise from the road outside, or pay to remove garbage. Similarly, the fact that work tends to yield increasing marginal disutility, the more one does, explains why overtime rates are usually above normal hourly rates of pay.

Reference: The Penguin Dictionary of Economics, 3rd edt.


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James Knight
Editor of Education
James is a lead content editor for Invezz. He's an avid trader and golfer, who spends an inordinate amount of time watching Leicester City and the… read more.