Frank弗兰克-经济学原理-微观-第4版课件ch5.pptVIP

The Scarcity Principle is relevant to our buyers. There is never enough time, money, and other resources to have everything we want. Buyers optimize the situation by prioritizing their wants and allocating their resources to get as much of what they want as possible. In economics, we assume that no one voluntarily takes action that makes them worse off. So, we look at peoples actions as a reflection of what makes them happy. * The idea of utility is to measure how much someone likes something and to compare the satisfaction that person gets from alternative goods. The economic unit of measurement for this is a util. No direct measurement is possible but if I offer you two goods for the same price, the one you choose creates more utils for you. Utils are personal. You cannot compare them between people. Is a dollar worth more to you or to your best friend? There is no way to tell. This limitation on comparing utility between people has some implications for public policy, but not for our study of demand. By prioritizing and allocating your resources carefully, you maximize your well being or your utility. * Since utility is personal, we will look at the example of a single person faced with the decision of how many ice cream cones to eat in an hour. For now, well ignore the resource constraint Sarah faces and focus just on how much benefit she gets from each ice cream cone. As you can see in the graph, her total utility increases as the number of ice cream cones increases – up to a point. Beyond that point, Sarah has had too many ice cream cones and her utility begins to decline. * By now you know that economists look at changes in the totals – the marginal amounts – when making important decisions. So well look at the marginal benefits Sarah got from each ice cream cone. Beyond the maximum utility point of 5 ice cream cones, her marginal utility turns negative – she would be better off if she had stopped at 5. * Sarah demonstrated the Law of Diminishing Ma