ECON 310 Lecture 2: l310x2

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10 May 2017

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The lectures on consumer behavior provide the underpinnings for the demand curve. They will also give us some guidelines for individual and household behavior: basics. General approach individuals or households choose to consume the basket of goods (broadly defined) that make them as well off as possible given their resources. Economists refer to this as maximizing their utility subject to their budget constraint. Budget resources available to use to consume goods. Usually this refers to income, but it could also refer to time or other things that are used in consumption. Budget constraint possible combinations of goods that can be purchased with the budget of the individual or household. Preferences way that the individual or household decides which baskets of goods are preferred to others. Utility the level of satisfaction that the individual or household gets. Each person can decide whether they prefer one basket of goods to another.

Related Questions

Chapter 4 is entitled 'The Theory of Individual Behavior', and much of the chapter is devoted to the use of indifference analysis to build a framework for demand theory. Indifference analysis goes to great lengths to explain consumer behavior and how consumers make choices between options available to them. The options they face include budget constraints, different preferences for risk, and a multitude of products and services from which to choose. If one steps back and looks at consumer behavior, it seems to be based upon a premise that is not actually stated in our book. That premise is that consumers behave rationally in their consumption expenditures.

Do you believe consumers do behave rationally? Is so, how do you explain impulse buying, buying as a result of advertising or strong sales pitches, buying for purposes of conspicuous consumption, or buying to simply have something bigger and better than someone else? If consumers do not behave rationally, how can the theory in chapter 4 account for the above behavior? Is the theory still valid? If you think consumers do behave rationally, how can rational thinking explain the above behaviors? How do your thoughts impact, if at all, your opinion of the theory espoused in our text?

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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

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.

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ECON 310 Lecture 2: l310x2

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