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This page compares the properties of several typical utility functions of divisible goods. These functions are commonly used as examples in consumer theory . The functions are ordinal utility functions, which means that their properties are invariant under positive monotone transformation .
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 ...
Wild fish stocks are a rivalrous good, as the amount of fish caught by one boat reduces the number of fish available to be caught by others. In economics, a good is said to be rivalrous or a rival if its consumption by one consumer prevents simultaneous consumption by other consumers, [1] or if consumption by one party reduces the ability of another party to consume it.
Consumers can take advantage of public goods without contributing sufficiently to their creation. This is called the free rider problem, or occasionally, the "easy rider problem". If too many consumers decide to "free-ride", private costs exceed private benefits and the incentive to provide the good or service through the market disappears.
Each individual consumer's marginal benefit, , represents his or her demand for the public good, or willingness to pay. The sum of the marginal benefits represent the aggregate willingness to pay or aggregate demand. The marginal cost is, under competitive market conditions, the supply for public goods.
Excludability was originally proposed in 1954 by American economist Paul Samuelson where he formalised the concept now known as public goods, i.e. goods that are both non-rivalrous and non-excludable. [1] Samuelson additionally highlighted the market failure of the free-rider problem that can occur with non
Many forms of price discrimination are legal, but in some cases charging consumers different prices for the same goods is illegal. For example, in the United States, the Robinson–Patman Act makes price discrimination illegal in certain anti-competitive interstate sale of commodities.
Normal goods are goods that experience an increase in demand as the income of consumers increases. The demand function of a normal good is downward sloping, which means there is an inverse relationship between the price and quantity demanded. [8] In other words, price elasticity of demand is negative for normal goods. Common goods mean that ...