ECON101 Lecture Notes - Marginal Utility, Limited Liability, Marginal Cost

71 views6 pages

pucepanda995

19 Nov 2012

School

University of Waterloo

Department

Economics

Course

ECON101

Professor

Emanuel Carvalho

For unlimited access to Class Notes, a Class+ subscription is required.

purplechimpanzee495 and 51 others unlocked

ECON101 Full Course Notes

Verified Note

79 documents

Document Summary

Utility is an expression or measure of consumer"s preferences. Alone, the number of utils assigned to a commodity by a consumer is meaningless. What is meaningful is how the number of utils assigned by the consumer to a unit of a commodity compares to the number of utils assigned to other units of the same commodity or units of other commodities. Total utility: (tu) the total utility attributed to the consumption of various units of a particular commodity. Marginal utility: (mu) the addition to total utility attributed to the consumption of each additional unit of the commodity. As we get more units of a commodity, the mu decreases (as in example) . Dmu: diminishing marginal utility: during a specified period of time, a consumer added utility (mu) diminishes with the consumption of each additional unit of the output. This is the norm, no matter what product. (bar of gold ex. ) Possible exceptions: (ex. being a set collector paintings etc. )

Related Questions

1. Suppose that the total utility from consuming one unit of good X is 54 utils, the total utility of two units of good X is 74 utils, and the total utility of three units of good X is 84 utils. The marginal utility of the third unit is

a.70.67 utils.

b.10 utils.

c.12.25 utils.

d.20 utils.

2. If income rises, the budget constraint

a. Moves outward away from the origin

b. Does not move

c. Moves inward toward the origin

d. Moves farther down the vertical axis

3. Economists assume that the goal of consumers is to maximize total utility.

true/false

4. The budget constraint cuts the horizontal axis at 12 units of good X and it cuts the vertical axis at 20 units of good Y. If the price of good X is $20 and the price of good Y is $12, then what does income equal?

a. $200

b. $240

c. $520

d. $280

e. not enough information to answer this question

5. Consumer equilibrium exists when an individual

a. can be made better off by buying more of a normal good and less of an inferior good.

b. is receiving the same total utility from each of the goods he or she purchases.

c. is receiving the same marginal utility from each of the goods he or she purchases.

d. has the same MU/P ratio for each of the goods he or she purchases.

e. none of the above

6. Suppose you are eating buffalo wings at a local happy hour. The total utils from doing so after the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh wings are 30, 50, 65, 72, respectively. In this situation we have __________ marginal utility, which is generally __________ in the analysis of consumer choice.

a. diminishing; not assumed

b. increasing; assumed

c. diminishing; assumed

d. increasing; not assumed

7. Which of the following best describes an interpersonal utility comparison?

a. Usually, Smith seems a lot happier than Jones.

b. Smith gets more utility from working on his computer than Jones gets from working on his computer.

c. Smith usually eats more in a day than Jones eats in a day.

d. ones likes computers produced by Dell Computer Corporation and Smith likes computers produced by Apple Computer Inc

e. Smith got less utility from eating the 30th cookie than eating the 29th cookie, and the same holds for Jones.

8. We would expect the total utility of water to be high but its marginal utility to be low. Why?

a. Because we need water to live and there is so much of it.

b. Because we need water to live and there is very little of it.

c. Because water is a fluid and we don't need fluids to live as much as we need food

d. Because water's price is low.

9.The marginal utility curve for units 6 through 8 of good Z lies below the horizontal axis. What does this imply must be true about the total utility curve for units 6 through 8 of good Z?

a. That portion of good Zâs total utility curve must also lie below the horizontal axis.

b. That portion of good Zâs total utility curve must be upward sloping.

c. That portion of good Zâs total utility curve must be horizontal.

d. That portion of good Zâs total utility curve must be downward sloping.

10. Research presented in the text shows that people are more concerned with their absolute income position in a group than their relative income position in the group.

true/false

When deciding consumption levels of more than one good, the utility-maximizing rule states that you are maximizing utility when

		the marginal utility o two goods are equal
		the marginal utility of two goods are zero
		the ratio of marginal utility to price of two goods is zero
		the ratio of marginal utility to price for the two goods are equal

10 points

QUESTION 2

My brother says the law of diminishing marginal utility is nonsense because he is way happier after his sixth beer than after his first one. Pick the best response.

		He has a point, maybe this is something behavioral economists should take a look at.
		True, but marginal utility refers only to the utility gained (or lost) by drinking that last beer, not to his total utility
		There are always exceptions, but in general this law will hold.
		True, but the law of diminishing marginal utility is really just saying that eventually he will prefer a glass of wine to another beer.

10 points

QUESTION 3

Frank spends $75 on 10 magazines and 25 newspapers. The magazines cost $5 each and the newspapers cost $2.50 each. Suppose that his marginal utility from the final magazine is 10 utils while his marginal utility from the final newspaper is also 10 utils. According to the utility-maximizing rule, Frank should:

		Reallocate spending from magazines to newspapers
		Reallocate spending from newspapers to magazines
		Be satisfied because he is already maximizing his total utility
		None of the above

10 points

QUESTION 4

Marginal utility can be:

		Positive, negative, or zero
		Decreasing but not negative
		Positive or negative, but not zero
		Positive, but not negative

10 points

QUESTION 5

In economics, a product provides utility if it:

is useful

violates the law of demand

takes more and more resources to produce successive units of it

satisfies consumer wants

Which of the following is true of an indifference curve?

		Along an indifference curve utility is fixed.
		If a consumer is rational then indifference curves may cross.
		Indifference curves further from the origin are associated with lower levels of utility than those that are closer to the origin.
		Because they are indifference curves, microeconomics students should be indifferent towards them.

An increase in the real income of a consumer is one result of an increase in the price of a product that the consumer is buying.

True
False

A consumer is making purchases of products Alpha and Beta such that the marginal utility of product Alpha is 30 and the marginal utility of product Beta is 40. The price of product Alpha is $5 and the price of product Beta is $10. The utility-maximizing rule suggests that this consumer should:

A. Increase in consumption of product Beta and decrease consumption of product Alpha.
B.Increase consumption of product Beta and increase consumption of product Alpha
C.Increase consumption of product Alpha and decrease consumption of product Beta
D.Make no change in the consumption of Alpha or Beta

The marginal rate of substitution of beef for chicken is the:

A. Number of units of chicken the consumer is prepared to give up to obtain one more unit of beef.
B. Number of units of beef the consumer is prepared to give up as income falls
C. Number of units of beef the consumer must sacrifice to obtain one more unit of chicken
D. Rate at which units of beef may be exchanged for units of chicken

The increase in demand for iPad tablet computers can be explained by:

A. An increase in the technology used to produce iPads, making the supply of iPads increase
B. An increase in the price of laptop computers, making their MU/P decrease
C. The enhanced versatility and storage capacity of iPads, making their MU/P increase
D. An increase in the income of buyers, making the demand for iPads increase.

If total utility increases as the consumption of a good increases, then the marginal utility must be increasing also.

True
False

lilacpanda639

ECON101 Lecture Notes - Marginal Utility, Limited Liability, Marginal Cost

ECON101 Full Course Notes

Document Summary

Get access

Related Documents

ECON101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Marginal Utility, Utility, Overconsumption

ECON101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: William Stanley Jevons, Material Flow Analysis, Easterlin Paradox

ECON101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Marginal Utility, Normal Good, Indifference Curve

Related Questions