# revealed preference

> English word · Noun

## Definitions
1. A consumer preference as inferred from purchasing habits according to a theory invented by American economist Paul A. Samuelson.
2. Samuelson's theory for inferring consumer preference from purchasing habits.

## Etymology
Coined by American economist Paul Samuelson in the title of his 1948 paper expounding a theory for inferring consumer preference from purchasing habits. Samuelson first published a version of his theory ten years earlier, in a 1938 paper, but did not use the term revealed preference in the 1938 paper.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/revealed-preference