Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
An example of how indifference curves are obtained as the level curves of a utility function. A graph of indifference curves for several utility levels of an individual consumer is called an indifference map. Points yielding different utility levels are each associated with distinct indifference curves and these indifference curves on the ...
For example, every point on the indifference curve I1 (as shown in the figure above), which represents a unique combination of good X and good Y, will give the consumer the same utility. Indifference curves have a few assumptions that explain their nature. Firstly, indifference curves are typically convex to the origin of the graph.
An example indifference curve is shown below: Each indifference curve is a set of points, each representing a combination of quantities of two goods or services, all of which combinations the consumer is equally satisfied with. The further a curve is from the origin, the greater is the level of utility.
Under the standard assumption of neoclassical economics that goods and services are continuously divisible, the marginal rates of substitution will be the same regardless of the direction of exchange, and will correspond to the slope of an indifference curve (more precisely, to the slope multiplied by −1) passing through the consumption bundle in question, at that point: mathematically, it ...
The model can be used to describe any community, such as a town or an entire nation. In a community indifference curve, the indifference curves of all those individuals are aggregated and held at an equal and constant level of utility .
Whether indifference curves are primitive or derivable from utility functions; and; Whether indifference curves are convex. Assumptions are also made of a more technical nature, e.g. non-reversibility, saturation, etc. The pursuit of rigour is not always conducive to intelligibility. In this article indifference curves will be treated as primitive.
An indifference curve can be detected in a market when the economics of scope is not overly diverse, or the goods and services are part of a perfect market. Any bundles on the same indifference curve have the same utility level. One example of this is deodorant. Deodorant is similarly priced throughout several different brands.
The indifference curves are straight lines (when there are two goods) or hyperplanes (when there are more goods). Each demand curve (demand as a function of price) is a step function : the consumer wants to buy zero units of a good whose utility/price ratio is below the maximum, and wants to buy as many units as possible of a good whose utility ...