The price of a hamburger is $1 and the price of a movie is $6 and the consumer has $14. A
consumer has purchased 2 hamburgers and 2 movies, receiving 20 units of utility for the second
hamburger and 100 units of utility for the second movie. The set of goods
is not an optimum because the marginal utility per dollar spent is greater for hamburgers
than for movies and the consumer is not spending all of his income.
is an optimum since the entire income is spent and total utility is maximized.
is not an optimum because the marginal utility for each good is not equal.
is an optimum since the entire income is spent and the marginal utility per dollar spent is the
same for the last unit of each good.
In a restaurant we can observe people consuming coffee, tea, and soft drinks. All are priced the
same. If Sally consumes coffee and Ali consumes soft drinks, we can conclude that
Bill will be drinking tea.
Sally likes coffee more than Ali does, and Ali likes soft drinks more than Sally does.
the utility Sally receives from coffee consumption equals the utility that Ali receives from
consuming soft drinks.
Sally derives more utility from coffee than from tea or soft drinks, and Ali derives more utility
from soft drinks than from tea or coffee.
The idea that consumers continue to adjust their purchases until the marginal utility per last dollar
spent on all items is equal is called the
law of diminishing marginal utility.
Juan and Sophia have decided to stop studying economics and get a bite to eat. Juan wants to go for
a pizza and Sophia wants a hamburger. They decide to go for pizza. What can we conclude from
this?
Sophia gets less utility from pizza than she could from a hamburger.
Juan always gets more utility from pizza than Sophia does.
Utility analysis does not work here since Sophia did not eat a hamburger.
Sophia will get negative utility from the pizza.