Acquisition and transaction utility

To understand why it might be difficult to maximize outcomes across social categories  lines, we must first consider the meaning and nature of “transaction utility.” Thaler (1985, 1999)  posits that people derive two kinds of utilities from transactions: acquisition utility and transaction utility. Acquisition utility is “the measure of the value of the good obtained relative to its price,” whereas transaction utility “measures the perceived value of the ‘deal’.” (Thaler, 

1999)