ECON 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Budget Constraint, Diminishing Returns, Production Function

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19 Nov 2020

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If we combine information about preferences (marginal utility values) with information about what is affordable (the budget constraint) we can develop a useful rule to guide us to an individual"s utility-maximizing choice: The highest possible utility will be the point for the consumers that occurs when the marginal utility per dollar is the same for both goods. Optimal consumption bundle: the consumption bundle that maximizes total utility given her budget constraint. In moving down the table, consuming more movies and less pizza, two factors affect her choices. As she moves down the table, she gains additional (i. e. , marginal utility) from consuming more movies, but in order to do so she must give up the additional (i. e. , marginal utility) from the pizza she forgoes. How many additional movies she can see for each pizza she forgoes depends on the relative prices of pizzas and movies. With an increase in price, the customer preferences (and mu"s) don"t change.

Related Questions

1. Use the table below for the following question. Suppose you have a budget of $6 and that brownies and Twizzlers cost $1 each. What is the consumer optimum?

Number of Brownies	Total Utility of Brownies	Marginal Utility of Brownies	Number of Twizzlers	Total Utility of Twizzlers	Marginal Utility of Twizzlers
0	0	-	0	0	-
1	10	10	1	6	8
2	19	9	2	13	7
3	26	7	3	19	6
4	30	4	4	23	4
5	30	0	5	25	2
6	29	-1	6	25	0

6 brownies

3 brownies and 3 Twizzlers

4 brownies and 2 Twizzlers

any combination of 6 because they're both $1

2. Use the table below for the following question. What is the consumer equilibrium for a $6 budget if the price of brownies rises to $1.50 and the price of Twizzlers remains at $1.00?

Number of Brownies	Total Utility of Brownies	Marginal Utility of Brownies	Number of Twizzlers	Total Utility of Twizzlers	Marginal Utility of Twizzlers
0	0	-	0	0	-
1	10	10	1	6	8
2	19	9	2	13	7
3	26	7	3	19	6
4	30	4	4	23	4
5	30	0	5	25	2
6	29	-1	6	25	0

The consumer will buy all Twizzlers because they're cheaper.

4 brownies

3 Twizzlers and 2 brownies

3 brownies and 3 Twizzlers

3. At Nice Price for the Ice, an ice cream parlor, customers routinely buy a scoop of ice cream for $3. If consumers purchase one scoop of ice cream at $3, then why don't they keep buying more and more scoops for $3 until the store sells out?

People would not want more than one scoop of ice cream because then they would have less money to spend on other goods.

People do not want to consume all the scoops of ice cream because their total utility is higher the less they eat.

At some point, customers do not value an additional scoop at $3, so they will not pay $3 for a scoop after they reach that point.

4. Suppose you plan on eating 50 potato chips. As you start consuming potato chips, your marginal utility is very high, but it begins to fall slowly until you've eaten 10 chips. After you have eaten 10 chips, your marginal utility decreases even faster with each additional chip. The marginal utility continues to decline until you've eaten 49 chips. The fiftieth chip does not give you any additional utility. After 50 chips, your mouth gets so salty that it's unpleasant to eat anymore, so marginal utility is actually negative for those chips. How many chips should you eat in order to maximize your total utility?

5. As you start consuming potato chips, your marginal utility is very high, but it begins to fall slowly until you've eaten 10 chips. After you have eaten 10 chips, marginal utility decreases even faster with each additional chip. The marginal utility continues to decline until you've eaten 49 chips. The fiftieth chip does not give you any additional utility. After 50 chips, your mouth gets so salty that it's unpleasant to eat anymore, so marginal utility is actually negative for those chips. How many chips should you eat in order to maximize your marginal utility?

6. At current levels of consumption, Alice is spending her entire budget. If Alice gets 3 utils of satisfaction per dollar spent on ice cream and 2 utils per dollar spent on shampoo, then how should she adjust her consumption to get closer to the consumer optimum?

She is already at the consumer optimum, so no adjustment is necessary.

She should buy more ice cream and less shampoo.

She should buy more shampoo and less ice cream.

She should buy more of both goods.

7. Suppose you are at a restaurant and your favorite dish costs $20. You can get your next-favorite dish for $17. If your next-favorite dish gives you 100 utils, how many additional utils do you need from your favorite dish to spend the extra $3?

17.65

117.65

8. The diamond water paradox is the observation that water is essential to life and inexpensive, while diamonds are not essential and are highly-priced. Which of the other pairs of goods exhibit a pricing structure similar to water and diamonds?

economy & luxury cars

rice & truffles (very expensive mushrooms)

paper clips & gasoline

paper & textbooks

9. Rice is a cheap staple food eaten several times a day by many people all over the world. In Trufflelandia, residents also eat expensive mushrooms known as truffles once every year as a birthday celebration. Rice keeps the people alive and truffles are not necessary for sustaining their lives. Why is rice so cheap and truffles so expensive?

Truffles taste better, so they are worth more money.

Rice is easy to cook, so people buy a lot of it. If people are going to buy so much, then it has to be cheap.

Truffles are more nutritious, and healthy food is always more expensive than unhealthy food.

People eat so much rice that an additional serving of rice has little marginal value, but the marginal value of another serving of truffles is very high.

oliverat570

1. Most people would prefer to drive a luxury car that has all the options, but more people buy less expensive cars even though they could afford the luxury car because:

A. luxury cars cost a lot more than non-luxury cars.

B. the total utility of less expensive cars is greater than that of luxury cars.

C. car buyers are irrational.

D. the marginal utility per dollar spent on the less expensive car is higher than that spent on luxury cars.

2. The labor market is considered as one of the more important markets in an economy because

A. most people typically earn the bulk of their income from wages and salaries.

B. the usual market forces do not hold in the labor market.

C. the labor market does not reach an equilibrium.

D. most people are concerned that wages determined in the labor market are unfair.

3. Table 17-1
Quantity of Labor Output (units)
1 80
2 170
3 240
4 300
5 350
6 390
7 420

Refer to Table 17-1. The marginal product of the fourth unit of labor is

A. 300.

B. 75.

C. 60.

D. 15.

4. Carolyn spends her income on popular magazines and music CDs. If the price of a CD is four times the price of a magazine and if Carolyn is maximizing her utility, she buys:

A. both goods until the marginal utility of the last CD purchased is four times the marginal utility of the last magazine purchased.

B. both goods until the marginal utility of the last magazine purchased is four times the marginal utility of the last CD purchased.

C. four times as many magazines as CDs.

D. four times as many CDs as magazines.

5. Marginal utility is the:

A. average satisfaction received from consuming a product.

B. total satisfaction received from consuming a given number of units of a product.

C. extra satisfaction received from consuming one more unit of a product.

D. satisfaction achieved when a consumer has had enough of a product.

6. What is behavioral economics?

A. the study of how people behave in the face of scarcity

B. the study of how people make decisions at the margin

C. the study of situations in which people act in ways that are not economically rational

D. the study of how people make wealth-maximizing decisions

7. Suppose a competitive firm is paying a wage of $12 an hour and sells its product at $3 per unit. Assume that labor is the only input. If hiring another worker would increase output by three units per hour, then to maximize profits the firm should:

A. not hire an additional worker.

B. hire another worker.

C. not change the number of workers it currently hires.

D. There is not enough information to answer the question.

8. Consumers have to make tradeoffs in deciding what to consume because:

A. they are limited by a budget constraint.

B. there are not enough of all goods produced.

C. not all goods give them the same amount of satisfaction.

D. the prices of goods vary.

9. Table 17-1
Quantity of Labor Output (units)
1 80
2 170
3 240
4 300
5 350
6 390
7 420

Refer to Table 17-1. If the output price is $3, what is the marginal revenue product of the fifth unit of labor?

A. $1,050

B. $360

C. $210

D. $150

10. At low wages, the labor supply curve for most people slopes upward because:

A. as wages increase income also increases unless hours worked decrease.

B. the demand for labor is perfectly elastic at low wages.

C. as wages increase the opportunity cost of leisure increases.

D. the supply of labor is perfectly inelastic at low wages.

11. A negative externality exists if:

A. the marginal social cost of producing a good or service exceeds the private cost.

B. the marginal private cost of producing a good or service exceeds the social cost.

C. there are quantity controls in a market.

D. there are price controls in a market.

redsnake660

Michael spends all of his income on coffee and donuts. A coffee costs $2.50 and a donut costs $2.00. At his current consumption level, the marginal utility for coffee is 30 utils, and the marginal utility for a donut is 60 utils. Which statement best describes what Michael needs to do to maximize his utility?

Question 1 options:

1)	buy less of both coffee and donuts.

2)	buy less coffee and more donuts.

3)	buy more coffee and less donuts.

4)	spend the same amount on coffee as he does on donuts.

Question 2

What is it called when the marginal utility derived from the last dollar spent on each good is the same across all goods and the last dollar spent uses all of the available budget for the purchase of those goods?

Question 2 options:

1)	the optimal consumption bundle.

2)	the optimal production bundle.

3)	diminishing marginal utility.

4)	optimal point.

Question 3 (1 point)

What does the economic theory of marginal utility infer?

Question 3 options:

1)	consumers naturally know which consumption choices will maximize their utility.

2)	consumers who watch market trends are better at maximizing their utility than are those who do not watch those trends.

3)	one cannot maximize utility without taking an economics class that explains utility theory.

4)	one cannot maximize utility without doing the math of calculating the ratios of marginal utility divided by price.

Question 4

Kate is addicted to chocolate and does not care how much it costs. In fact, she spends more than $20 a week on chocolate. What can be concluded about elasticity in her buying decisions?

Question 4 options:

1)	Her income elasticity of demand for chocolate is equal to one.

2)	Her income elasticity of demand for chocolate is equal to zero.

3)	Her price elasticity of demand for chocolate is equal to one.

4)	Her price elasticity of demand for chocolate is equal to zero.

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Question 5 (1 point)

Why does the demand for a good become relatively more elastic?

Question 5 options:

1)	substitutes for the good become more available.

2)	substitutes for the good become less available.

3)	the good becomes more of a necessity.

4)	the time allowed for adjustment is shortened.

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Question 6 (1 point)

Assume the price of chicken per pound is $3.49 and that Americans purchase 10 million pounds per chicken every month. If the price of chicken increases to $5.49 per pound, identify what will occur to consumer surplus?

Question 6 options:

1)	consumer surplus increases.

2)	consumer surplus decreases.

3)	consumer surplus creates incentive to save.

4)	consumer surplus creates incentive to spend.

Question 7 (1 point)

What is another name for the difference between the price that consumers are willing to pay for a good and a lower price that they may actually have to pay?

Question 7 options:

profit.

revenue.

3)	consumer utility.

4)	consumer surplus.

Question 8

Adam, Brian, Robert, and Sam all want to attend a football game. The admission price is $48. Adam is willing to pay $59 for the ticket. Brian is willing to pay $39. Robert is willing to pay $45, and Sam is willing to pay $55. Based on this information, who will go to the game?

Question 8 options:

1)	Adam, Brian, Robert, and Sam.

2)	Brian and Robert.

3)	Adam and Sam.

4)	Brian, Robert, and Sam.

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Question 9 (1 point)

Lily is willing to pay $10 for one bracelet and $5 for a second. Patty is willing to pay $12 for one bracelet and $2 for a second. If the price is currently $8 per bracelet, identify what is the total consumer surplus after Lily and Patty make their purchases?

Question 9 options:

Question 10 (1 point)

Manfred is willing to shovel one driveway for $25, a second for $30, and a third for $35. Assume that the market rate for shoveling driveways is $32. How many driveways will Manfred shovel, what will be his total revenue, and what will be his producer surplus?

Question 10 options:

1)	Manfred will shovel two driveways for a total revenue of $64 and his producer surplus will be $9.

2)	Manfred will shovel three driveways for a total revenue of $75 and his producer surplus will be $12.

3)	Manfred will shovel three driveways for a total revenue of $96 and his producer surplus will be $5.

4)	Manfred will shovel four driveways for a total revenue of $125 and his producer surplus will be $18.

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Question 11 (1 point)

What would the difference between the price that producers receive and the lower price at which they are willing to sell the good be called?

Question 11 options:

1)	producer shortage.

2)	producer surplus.

3)	consumer shortage.

4)	consumer surplus.

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Question 12 (1 point)

What will happen when there is an increase in the price of eBook downloads?

Question 12 options:

1)	It reduces the marginal utility derived from each dollar spent on eBooks.

2)	It reduces the marginal utility derived from each hardcopy book purchased.

3)	There will not be a substitution effect.

4)	There will not be a change in the number of eBooks in the set of consumption possibilities.

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Question 13 (1 point)

When is price elasticity of demand utilized to measure how an individual changes the quantity they demand?

Question 13 options:

1)	when supply changes.

2)	when product quality changes.

3)	when marketing changes.

4)	when price changes.

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Question 14 (1 point)

Assume Mary consumes only tea and pastries. A cup of tea costs 5 euros and a pastry costs 8 euros. Her weekly income is 450 euros. Mary always drinks 2 cups of tea for every pastry she consumes. What is Maryâs optimal weekly consumption bundle?

Question 14 options:

1)	25 cups of tea and 50 pastries.

2)	50 cups of tea and 25 pastries.

3)	58 cups of tea and 20 pastries.

4)	60 cups of tea and 30 pastries.

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Question 15 (1 point)

When is producer surplus a positive value?

Question 15 options:

1)	the price the producer is willing to charge equals the market price.

2)	there is no tax applied to the good.

3)	the price the producer is willing to charge is less than the market price.

4)	the price the producer is willing to charge is greater than the market price.

ECON 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Budget Constraint, Diminishing Returns, Production Function

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