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Economics · Ch 2 — Theory of Consumer Behaviour

Key Concepts

Key Concepts

The key terms introduced in this chapter, gathered in one place for quick revision — a compact glossary for this CBSE Class …

DefinitionBudget set

The collection of all bundles of the two goods that a consumer can buy with her given income at the prevailing market prices — every bundle whose total cost, p1x1+p2x2p_1x_1 + p_2x_2, is less …

DefinitionBudget line

The boundary of the budget set: all bundles that cost the consumer her entire income, satisfying p1x1+p2x2=Mp_1x_1 + p_2x_2 = M. It is negatively slopi …

DefinitionPreference

A consumer's ranking of the available bundles according to how desirable she finds them, letting her judge whether she likes one bundle more than, less than, o …

DefinitionIndifference

The situation in which a consumer regards two bundles as equally desirable, so that she has no reason to choose …

DefinitionIndifference curve

A locus of all bundles among which the consumer is indifferent; every point on it yields the same level of satisfaction. It is downward sloping and typi …

DefinitionMarginal Rate of substitution

The rate at which a consumer is willing to give up units of one good to obtain one additional unit of the other while remaining equally satisfied; it equals the magnitude of the …

DefinitionMonotonic preferences

Preferences under which a bundle containing more of at least one good and no less of the other is always preferred — in short, more of a go …

DefinitionDiminishing rate of substitution

The tendency of the marginal rate of substitution to fall as the consumer moves down along an indifference curve, giving the curve its co …

DefinitionIndifference map

A family of indifference curves that together represent a consumer's entire set of preferences, where a curve farther from the origin denotes a hig …

DefinitionUtility function

A rule that assigns a numerical value to each bundle so that more-preferred bundles receive higher numbers, giving a compact numerical representation of …

DefinitionConsumer's optimum

The most-preferred affordable bundle, located where the budget line is tangent to the highest attainable indifference curve, so that the marginal rate of substit …

DefinitionDemand

The quantity of a good that a consumer is willing and able to buy at a given price, taking her income, tastes and the prices o …

DefinitionLaw of demand

The general tendency for the quantity demanded of a good to rise when its price falls and to fall when its price rises, other thin …

DefinitionDemand curve

A graph showing the quantity of a good a consumer chooses at different prices, holding income, tastes and other prices constant; it is ge …

DefinitionSubstitution effect

The change in the quantity demanded of a good that arises purely from the change in its relative price, keeping the consumer on the sam …

DefinitionIncome effect

The change in the quantity demanded of a good that results from the change in the consumer's real purchasing power when the …

DefinitionNormal good

A good whose demand increases when the consumer's income rises and decreases when he …

DefinitionInferior good

A good whose demand falls when the consumer's income rises and rises when her …

DefinitionSubstitute

A good that can be used in place of another to satisfy a similar want, so that a rise in the price of one raises the demand for the other (for …

DefinitionComplement

A good typically consumed together with another, so that a rise in the price of one lowers the demand for the other (for ex …

DefinitionPrice elasticity of demand

A measure of how responsive quantity demanded is to a change in price, defined as the percentage change in quantity demanded divided by the percentage change i …