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A collection of (selected) indifference curves, illustrated graphically, is referred to as an indifference map. The slope of an indifference curve is called the MRS (marginal rate of substitution), and it indicates how much of good y must be sacrificed to keep the utility constant if good x is increased by one unit.
A community indifference curve is an illustration of different combinations of commodity quantities that would bring a whole community the same level of utility. The model can be used to describe any community, such as a town or an entire nation.
An indifference curve is a set of all commodity bundles providing consumers with the same level of utility. The indifference curve is named so because the consumer would be indifferent between choosing any of these bundles. The indifference curves are not thick because of LNS.
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.
The indifference curves are L-shaped and their corners are determined by the weights. E.g., for the function min ( x 1 / 2 , x 2 / 3 ) {\displaystyle \min(x_{1}/2,x_{2}/3)} , the corners of the indifferent curves are at ( 2 t , 3 t ) {\displaystyle (2t,3t)} where t ∈ [ 0 , ∞ ) {\displaystyle t\in [0,\infty )} .
A set of convex-shaped indifference curves displays convex preferences: Given a convex indifference curve containing the set of all bundles (of two or more goods) that are all viewed as equally desired, the set of all goods bundles that are viewed as being at least as desired as those on the indifference curve is a convex set.
Figure 2: Income-consumption curve for normal goods. In the figure 2 to the left, B1, B2 and B3 are the different budget lines and I 1, I 2 and I 3 are the indifference curves that are available to the consumer. As shown earlier, as the income of the consumer rises, the budget line moves outwards parallel to itself.
The respective hypothetical utilities of the two persons in two-dimensional utility space is analogous to respective quantities of commodities for the two-dimensional commodity space of the indifference-curve surface; The Welfare function is analogous to the indifference-curve map; The Possibility function is analogous to the budget constraint