Monotonic preferences refer to a type of preference in which a consumer prefers a particular bundle over another bundle if the former consists of at least more of one good and no less of the other good. In economics, an agents preferences are said to be weakly monotonic if, given a consumption bundle x, the agent prefers all consumption bundles y that have more of all goods. On the other hand, an agents preferences are said to be strongly monotonic if, given a consumption bundle x, the agent prefers all consumption bundles y that have more of at least one good, and not less in any other good.

In strict monotonic preferences, the consumer prefers more of one good but no less of the other. For example, if bundle A(3, 5) and bundle B(3, 2) are available to the consumer, then the consumer will prefer bundle A over bundle B as bundle A consists of more units of good 2 than bundle B.

Monotonic preferences are a common assumption in the theory of the core of an economy, and it implies that any increase in consumption will be preferred.