Explain why the budget line is downward sloping.
The budget line is a negatively downward sloping line. The slope of a budget line measures the amount of good 2 that must be sacrificed in order to get an
additional unit of good 1, as the consumer’s income (M) is fixed. The budget line is downward sloping because, in order to increase the consumption of one good, the consumption of the other good must be reduced, with constant M. The slope of the budget line is , which implies the rate of exchange or the rate at which good 2 can be substituted for good 1.
A consumer wants to consume two goods. The prices of the two goods are Rs 4
and Rs 5 respectively. The consumer’s income is Rs 20.
(i) Write down the equation of the budget line.
(ii) How much of good 1 can the consumer consume if she spends her entire
income on that good?
(iii) How much of good 2 can she consume if she spends her entire income on
that good?
(iv) What is the slope of the budget line?
Questions 5, 6 and 7 are related to question 4.
Suppose your friend is indifferent to the bundles (5, 6) and (6, 6). Are the preferences of your friend monotonic?
Consider the demand curve D (p) = 10 – 3p. What is the elasticity at price 53?
Suppose there are 20 consumers for a good and they have identical demand functions:
d(p)=10–3pd(p)=10–3p for any price less than or equal to 103103 and d1(p)=0d1(p)=0 at any price greater than 103.
Suppose a consumer wants to consume two goods which are available only in
integer units. The two goods are equally priced at Rs 10 and the consumer’s
income is Rs 40.
(i) Write down all the bundles that are available to the consumer.
(ii) Among the bundles that are available to the consumer, identify those which cost her exactly Rs 40.
What is budget line?
What do you mean by an ‘inferior good’? Give some examples
Suppose a consumer’s preferences are monotonic. What can you say about her preference ranking over the bundles (10, 10), (10, 9) and (9, 9)?
What do you mean by substitutes? Give examples of two goods which are substitutes of each other.
Explain price elasticity of demand.
Explain the concept of a production function
What would be the shape of the demand curve so that the total revenue curve is?
(a) A positively sloped straight line passing through the origin?
(b) A horizontal line?
Explain market equilibrium.
Discuss the central problems of an economy.
What are the characteristics of a perfectly competitive market?
What is the total product of input?
From the schedule provided below calculate the total revenue, demand curve and the price elasticity of demand:
Quantity |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
Marginal Revenue |
10 |
6 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
- |
When do we say that there is an excess demand for a commodity in the market?
What do you mean by the production possibilities of an economy?
How are the total revenue of a firm, market price, and the quantity sold by the firm related to each other?
Why is the short-run marginal cost curve 'U'-shaped?
Comment on the shape of MR curve in case when TR curve is a
(a) Positively sloped straight line
(b) Horizontal straight line
How will a change in the price of coffee affect the equilibrium price of tea? Explain the effect on equilibrium quantity also through a diagram.
Why does the SMC curve cut the AVC curve at the minimum point of the AVC curve?
When do we say that there is an excess supply for a commodity in the market?
How is the wage rate determined in a perfectly competitive labor market?
Explain the relationship between the marginal products and the total product of an input.
What is the average product of an input?
What are the average fixed cost, average variable cost and average cost of a firm? How are they related?
If the monopolist firm of Exercise 3 was a public sector firm. The government set a rule for its manager to accept the government fixed price as given (i.e. to be a price taker and therefore behave as a firm in a perfectly competitive market). And the government has decided to set the price so that demand and supply in the market are equal. What would be the equilibrium price, quantity and profit in this case?