Midterm 2 Flashcards
Utility
Satisfaction, happiness
Total Utility (TU)
Total satisfaction received from a product
TU=Sum of MU
Marginal Utility (MU)
Additional satisfaction gained from consuming one more unit of a product.
- Tangent of TU
MU=TU/Q
Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility (LDMU)
marginal utility will decrease after a certain point when we continue to consume goods.
The utility the consumers derive from successive units of a particular product.
Maximum Utility
Maximum utility is attained when the marginal utility from the last dollar spent are equal.
Consumer Decision
A utility-maximizing consumer (household) allocates expenditures so that the marginal utility obtained from the last dollar spent on each product is equal.
Maximizing Utility Methods
- MUx/Px=MUy/Py
- MUx/MUy=Px/Py
- MB=MC
Market demand curve
Shows relationship between a product’s price and the amount demanded by all consumers together.
Calculating market demand
Add all individual demand curves (Add Qd’s from each - add horizontally)
Real income
Income expressed in terms of purchasing power of money income; the quantity of goods and services that can be purchased with the money income
Substitution effect
The change of quantity demanded due to a change in relative price, holding real income constant
Income effect
The change in quantity demanded of a product when there is a change in real income
Normal good
- Substitution effect is negative
- Income effect is positive
Inferior good
- Substitution effect is negative
- Income effect is positive
Giffen good
An inferior good where the income effects outweigh the substitution effect causing it to be positively sloped
- Substitution effect is negative
- Income effect is really positive
Conspicuous consumption good
- Products consumed for “snob appeal”, only bought because it is expensive, shows status, more designer goods
- Substitution effect is positive
Consumer surplus
The difference between the total value that the consumers place on all units consumed of a product, and the payment they actually make to purchase the product
Demand curve price
Value consumer is willing to pay, maximum P consumer will buy at
- Reservation price
Market price
Value consumer must pay, price tag on item
Paradox of values
Just because good A is more expensive than good B doesn’t mean that it’s more valuable
- Mistaking TU for MU
Indifference(II) curve
All combinations of x and y that yield a given level of happiness.
- TU is constant (change in TU is zero)
II curve assumptions
- Consumer can rank preferences
- Preferences are transitive (A over B, B over C, so A over C)
- More is better “MIB”
II curve characteristics
- Infinite number increasing away from the origin
- Downward sloping
- Cannot cross
- Convex from the origin
Utility function
TU=TU(x, y)