Editing Indifference curve (section)

== Criticisms ==
Indifference curves inherit the [[Utility#Discussion and criticism|criticisms directed at utility]] more generally.

[[Herbert Hovenkamp]] (1991)<ref name="Hovenkamp">{{cite journal |last=Hovenkamp |first=Herbert |date=1991 |title=Legal Policy and the Endowment Effect |journal=The Journal of Legal Studies |volume=20 |issue=2 |page=225 |doi=10.1086/467886|s2cid=155051169 }}</ref> has argued that the presence of an [[endowment effect]] has significant implications for [[law]] and [[economics]], particularly in regard to [[welfare economics]]. He argues that the presence of an endowment effect indicates that a person has no indifference curve (see however Hanemann, 1991<ref name="Hanemann">{{cite journal |last=Hanemann |first=W. Michael |date=1991 |title=Willingness To Pay and Willingness To Accept: How Much Can They Differ? Reply |journal=American Economic Review |volume=81 |issue=3 |pages=635–647 |doi=10.1257/000282803321455449 |jstor=2006525}}</ref>) rendering the neoclassical tools of welfare analysis useless, concluding that courts should instead use [[Willingness to accept|WTA]] as a measure of value. Fischel (1995)<ref name="Fischel">{{cite journal |last=Fischel |first=William A. |date=1995 |title=The offer/ask disparity and just compensation for takings: A constitutional choice perspective |journal=International Review of Law and Economics |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=187–203 |doi=10.1016/0144-8188(94)00005-F|doi-access=free }}</ref> however, raises the counterpoint that using WTA as a measure of value would deter the development of a nation's infrastructure and [[economic growth]].

Austrian economist [[Murray Rothbard]] criticised the indifference curve as "never by definition exhibited in action, in actual exchanges, and is therefore unknowable and objectively meaningless."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rothbard |first1=Murray |title=The Ethics of Liberty |date=1998 |publisher=New York University Press |isbn=9780814775592 |pages=242}}</ref>