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Chapter Three

This chapter explores the three steps involved in understanding consumer behavior: identifying consumer preferences, considering budget constraints, and analyzing consumer choices. It also introduces rationality in economics and assumptions about preference relations.

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Chapter Three

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  1. Chapter Three Preferences

  2. Consumer behavior is best understood in three distinct steps: 1. Consumer Preferences: The first step is to find a practical way to describethe reasons people might prefer one good to another. 2. Budget Constraints: Of course, consumers also consider prices. In Step 2,therefore,we take into account the fact that consumers have limited incomeswhich restrict the quantities of goods they can buy.What does a consumerdo in this situation? 3. Consumer Choices: Given their preferences and limited incomes,consumers choose to buy combinations of goods that maximize their satisfaction.

  3. Rationality in Economics • Behavioral Postulate:A decisionmaker always chooses its most preferred alternative from its set of available alternatives. • So to model choice we must model decisionmakers’ preferences.

  4. Preference Relations • Comparing two different consumption bundles, x and y: • strict preference: x is more preferred than is y. • weak preference: x is as at least as preferred as is y. • indifference: x is exactly as preferred as is y.

  5. Preference Relations • Strict preference, weak preference and indifference are all preference relations. • Particularly, they are ordinal relations; i.e. they state only the order in which bundles are preferred.

  6. Preference Relations p • denotes strict preference; x y means that bundle x is preferred strictly to bundle y. p

  7. Preference Relations p • denotes strict preference; x y means bundle x is preferred strictly to bundle y. • ~ denotes indifference; x ~ y means x and y are equally preferred. p

  8. f f ~ ~ Preference Relations p • denotes strict preference so x y means that bundle x is preferred strictly to bundle y. • ~ denotes indifference; x ~ y means x and y are equally preferred. • denotes weak preference;x y means x is preferred at least as much as is y. p

  9. f f ~ ~ Preference Relations • x y and y x imply x ~ y.

  10. f f f f ~ ~ ~ ~ Preference Relations • x y and y x imply x ~ y. • x y and (not y x) imply x y. p

  11. f f ~ ~ Assumptions about Preference Relations • Completeness: For any two bundles x and y it is always possible to make the statement that either x y or y x.

  12. f ~ Assumptions about Preference Relations • Reflexivity: Any bundle x is always at least as preferred as itself; i.e. x x.

  13. f f f ~ ~ ~ Assumptions about Preference Relations • Transitivity: Ifx is at least as preferred as y, andy is at least as preferred as z, thenx is at least as preferred as z; i.e.x y and y z x z.

  14. Rational preference relation • When a preference order is both transitive and complete, then it is standard practice to call it a rational preference relation, and the people who comply with it are rational agents.

  15. Exercise 1 • An NHL coach prefers players who are heavier, faster and more disciplined. If a player A is better than B in at least two of these characteristics then the coach prefers A , whereas in all other cases he is indifferent. Is his preference relation rational?

  16. Excersise 1

  17. Exercise 2 • How to spend Sunday afternoon? Alternatives: Shopping moll (S), Opera (O), Cinema (C) Dad prefers: C to S to O Mother prefers: S to O to C Son prefers: O to C to S VOTING, is aggregate preference relation rational?

  18. Indifference Curves • Take a reference bundle x’. The set of all bundles equally preferred to x’ is the indifference curve containing x’; the set of all bundles y ~ x’. • Since an indifference “curve” is not always a curve a better name might be an indifference “set”.

  19. Indifference Curves x2 x’ ~ x” ~ x”’ x’ x” x”’ x1

  20. Indifference Curves x2 zxy p p x z y x1

  21. Indifference Curves I1 All bundles in I1 are strictly preferred to all in I2. x2 x z I2 All bundles in I2 are strictly preferred to all in I3. y I3 x1

  22. Indifference Curves x2 WP(x), the set of bundles weakly preferred to x. x I(x’) I(x) x1

  23. Indifference Curves x2 WP(x), the set of bundles weakly preferred to x. x WP(x) includes I(x). I(x) x1

  24. Indifference Curves x2 SP(x), the set of bundles strictly preferred to x, does not include I(x). x I(x) x1

  25. Indifference Curves Can indifference curves intersect?

  26. Indifference Curves Cannot Intersect From I1, x ~ y. From I2, x ~ z. Therefore y ~ z. I2 x2 I1 x y z x1

  27. Indifference Curves Cannot Intersect From I1, x ~ y. From I2, x ~ z. Therefore y ~ z. But from I1 and I2 we see y z, a contradiction. I2 x2 I1 p x y z x1

  28. Slopes of Indifference Curves • When more of a commodity is always preferred, the commodity is a good. • If every commodity is a good then indifference curves are negatively sloped.

  29. Slopes of Indifference Curves Good 2 Two goodsa negatively sloped indifference curve. Better Worse Good 1

  30. Slopes of Indifference Curves • If less of a commodity is always preferred then the commodity is a bad. • Draw an example of an indiference curve (x – a bad; y – a good)

  31. Slopes of Indifference Curves Good 2 One good and onebad a positively sloped indifference curve. Better Worse Bad 1

  32. Extreme Cases of Indifference Curves; Perfect Substitutes • If a consumer always regards units of commodities 1 and 2 as equivalent, then the commodities are perfect substitutes and only the total amount of the two commodities in bundles determines their preference rank-order. • Examples?

  33. Extreme Cases of Indifference Curves; Perfect Substitutes x2 Slopes are constant at - 1. 15 I2 Bundles in I2 all have a totalof 15 units and are strictly preferred to all bundles in I1, which have a total of only 8 units in them. 8 I1 x1 8 15

  34. Extreme Cases of Indifference Curves; Perfect Complements • If a consumer always consumes commodities 1 and 2 in fixed proportion (e.g. one-to-one), then the commodities are perfect complements and only the number of pairs of units of the two commodities determines the preference rank-order of bundles.

  35. Extreme Cases of Indifference Curves; Perfect Complements x2 Each of (5,5), (5,9) and (9,5) contains5 pairs so each is equally preferred. 45o 9 5 I1 x1 5 9

  36. Extreme Cases of Indifference Curves; Perfect Complements x2 Since each of (5,5), (5,9) and (9,5) contains 5 pairs, each is less preferred than the bundle (9,9)which contains 9 pairs. 45o 9 I2 5 I1 x1 5 9

  37. Preferences Exhibiting Satiation • A bundle strictly preferred to any other is a satiation point or a bliss point. • What do indifference curves look like for preferences exhibiting satiation?

  38. Indifference Curves Exhibiting Satiation x2 Satiation(bliss)point x1

  39. Indifference Curves Exhibiting Satiation x2 Better Better Satiation(bliss)point Better x1

  40. Indifference Curves Exhibiting Satiation x2 Better Better Satiation(bliss)point Better x1

  41. Indifference Curves for Discrete Commodities • A commodity is infinitely divisible if it can be acquired in any quantity; e.g. water or cheese. • A commodity is discrete if it comes in unit lumps of 1, 2, 3, … and so on; e.g. aircraft, ships and refrigerators.

  42. Indifference Curves for Discrete Commodities • Suppose commodity 2 is an infinitely divisible good (gasoline) while commodity 1 is a discrete good (aircraft). What do indifference “curves” look like?

  43. Indifference Curves With a Discrete Good Gas-oline Indifference “curves”are collections ofdiscrete points. Aircraft 0 1 2 3 4

  44. Well-Behaved Preferences • A preference relation is “well-behaved” if it is • monotonic and convex. • Monotonicity: More of any commodity is always preferred (i.e. no satiation and every commodity is a good).

  45. Well-Behaved Preferences • Convexity: Mixtures of bundles are (at least weakly) preferred to the bundles themselves. E.g., the 50-50 mixture of the bundles x and y is z = (0.5)x + (0.5)y.z is at least as preferred as x or y.

  46. Well-Behaved Preferences -- Convexity. x x2 x+y is strictly preferred to both x and y. x2+y2 z = 2 2 y y2 x1+y1 x1 y1 2

  47. Well-Behaved Preferences -- Convexity. x x2 z =(tx1+(1-t)y1, tx2+(1-t)y2) is preferred to x and y for all 0 < t < 1. y y2 x1 y1

  48. Well-Behaved Preferences -- Convexity. Preferences are strictly convex when all mixtures z are strictly preferred to their component bundles x and y. x x2 z y y2 x1 y1

  49. Well-Behaved Preferences -- Weak Convexity. Preferences are weakly convex if at least one mixture z is equally preferred to a component bundle. x’ z’ x z y y’

  50. Non-Convex Preferences x2 Better The mixture zis less preferred than x or y. z y2 x1 y1

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