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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 ...
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 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.
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 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.
For example, if the MRS xy = 2, the consumer will give up 2 units of Y to obtain 1 additional unit of X. As one moves down a (standardly convex) indifference curve, the marginal rate of substitution decreases (as measured by the absolute value of the slope of the indifference curve, which decreases).
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.
An indifference graph, formed from a set of points on the real line by connecting pairs of points whose distance is at most one. In graph theory, a branch of mathematics, an indifference graph is an undirected graph constructed by assigning a real number to each vertex and connecting two vertices by an edge when their numbers are within one unit of each other. [1]