Economic utility and production functions collapse into the same three substitutability zones.

Evidence

For economists the standard way to address aggregation is via utility and production functions. For example, consumption poverty analyses rely on some utility function. Some utility functions are weakest link (including the classic Cobb–Douglas production function), others are mean (e.g., the generalized mean, known to economists as the constant elasticity of substitution function), and others are best shot. They vary in the degree of substitutability between dimensions or indicators. Fuzzy logic is clearer on this because it formalizes the three zones and includes aggregation procedures smaller than the minimum and larger than the maximum. — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts and Measurement, 108

Categorization

• XREF: Maps econ’s Cobb-Douglas and CES functions onto fuzzy-logic aggregation rules — a cross-domain bridge between econometrics and set-theoretic methods.
• SEED: Possible essay: ‘The three aggregation functions hiding inside every well-being index’ — showing poverty and human-development indices silently assume one substitutability regime.