ORDINAL UTILITY: A method of analyzing utility, or satisfaction derived from the consumption of goods and services, based on a relative ranking of the goods and services consumed. With ordinal utility, goods are only ranked only in terms of more or less preferred, there is no attempt to determine how much more one good is preferred to another. Ordinal utility is the underlying assumption used in the analysis of indifference curves and should be compared with cardinal utility, which (hypothetically) measures utility using a quantitative scale.

     See also | utility | satisfaction | ordinal | second rule of subjectivity | indifference curve | consumer demand theory | cardinal | cardinal utility | quality of life | util | marginal utility | utility maximization |

ORDINAL UTILITY, AmosWEB GLOSS*arama, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2026. [Accessed: March 16, 2026].

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In the long run, a perfectly competitive firm adjusts plant size, or the quantity of capital, to maximize long-run profit. In addition, the entry and exit of firms into and out of a perfectly competitive market guarantees that each perfectly competitive firm earns nothing more or less than a normal profit. As a perfectly competitive industry reacts to changes in demand, it traces out positive, negative, or horizontal long-run supply curve due to increasing, decreasing, or constant cost.

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