Cookies help us provide, protect and improve our products and services. But the two indifference curves cutting each other lead us to an absurd conclusion of A being equal to Bin terms of satisfaction. If the graph is on the curve or line, then it means that the consumer has no preference for any goods, because all the good has the same level of satisfaction or utility to the consumer. The shaded region bounded by the budget line BL and the coordinate axes represents market opportunity set from which the consumer can make a choice of the two commodities. That is, income effect of the rise in wage rate on leisure is positive, that is, leads to the increase in the hours of leisure enjoyed (that is, tends to decrease labour supply). (8) An indifference curve is always convex to the origin. Lump sum tax, proportionate and progressive income taxes, wealth tax, death duty are the examples of direct tax. CFA Institute Does Not Endorse, Promote, Or Warrant The Accuracy Or Quality Of WallStreetMojo. It is thus clear that as a result of the imposition of excise duty, the individual has shifted from a higher indifference curve IC3 to a lower one IC1, that is, his level of satisfaction or welfare has declined. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. Each individual axis indicates a single type of economic goods. all of which provide satisfaction to the individual. At this new equilibrium point E2 he is purchasing Of2 quantity of food and ON2 of other goods. Of course, these ration limits narrow down or truncate his market opportunity set at both ends on the X and Y axes, and in this way they are potentially binding but they are not effective in restraining his consumption. The indifference curve slopes down from left to right on the graph. It is evident from Fig. It comprises individual choices, marginal utilityMarginal UtilityA customer's marginal utility is the satisfaction or benefit derived from one additional unit of product consumed. MRS between income and leisure equals the wage rate (w) that is, the market exchange rate between the two. The indifference curve shows that she could obtain the same level of utility by moving to point W, skiing for 7 days and going horseback riding for 1 day. If indifference curves were concave or straight lines, the consumer would succumb to monomania, that is, he would buy and consume only one good. An indifference curve is a downward sloping convex line connecting the quantity of one good consumed with the amount of another good consumed. Thus, to quote Prof. Watson again, you can make someone happier if you give him cash instead of a commodity, even if the commodity is something he wants. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Now, if no food subsidy was given and therefore the price line was PL1, then for buying OA quantity of food, the individual would have spent PN amount of money. Now consider Figure 11.7 where ration limit is fixed at Rx which lies to the left of L. This ration limit reduces or truncates his market opportunity set (i.e. All this means that the two perfect complements are used in a certain fixed ratio and cannot be substituted for each other In Fig. We shall study below that indirect tax such as excise duty income causes excess burden on the individuals, that is, indirect tax reduces welfare more than the direct tax, say income tax when an equal amount of revenue is raised through them. It is thus clear that for an individual supplier of labour income effect and substitution effects work in opposite directions. At the extreme, when two goods cannot at all be substituted for each other, that is, when the two goods are perfect complementary goods, as for example gasoline and coolant in a car, the indifference curve will consist of two straight lines with a right angle bent which is convex to the origin as shown in Fig. (say apples), quantity of another good (say oranges) must fall so that the total satisfaction (utility) remains same. IC2 is a higher indifference curve than IC1. Share Your Word File 11.20 where in panel (a) wage offer curve is shown, and in panel (b) supply curve of labour is drawn corresponding to leisure-work equilibrium points in panel (a)Thus, to start with at wage rate w0 (i.e. You may also have a look at the following articles to learn more , Your email address will not be published. We cannot predict the specific result purely on theoretical grounds. Share Your PDF File It Dispenses with Cardinal Measurement of Utility 2. If the total satisfaction is to remain the same, the consumer must part with a diminishing number of bananas as he gets as increasing stock of oranges. This website includes study notes, research papers, essays, articles and other allied information submitted by visitors like YOU. In our Figure PE = MK (the vertical distance between two parallel lines) and RM is greater than MK. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". The degree of convexity of an indifference curve depends on the rate of fall in the marginal rate of substitution of X for Y. Economists have adopted the principles of. If the government is eager to raise the tax revenue and at that time the government may face the issue regarding whether it . Besides, a lower price of food due to price subsidy on it induces the consumer to substitute food for other goods causing greater consumption of food as compared to the scheme of lump-sum cash grant which have no such substitution effect and permits free choice of goods to the individual according to his own preference. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Since the consumer gets an equal preference for all bundles of goods, they are indifferent about any two combinations on the curve. 11.3 where along the X-axis we measure quantity of food and along the F-axis we measure money which represents all other goods, (i.e. In other words, up to wage rate w0 labour supply curve slopes upward and beyond that it starts bending backward. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. If a tangency point is reached between the indifference curve and budget line then you do not have a corner . It will be seen from Figure 11.1 that PE is less than RM which is the amount of money paid by the Government as subsidy. 11.8 he is at lower indifference curve IC0 indicating his lower level of welfare. Consumer Surplus is the difference between the actual price that the customers pay for a product & the maximum price that they are ready to pay (for a single unit). (4) The prices of the two goods are given. If now the Government introduces a rationing for commodity X and fixes a ration of X equal to ORx (At point Rx we have shown a vertical line showing the constraint or ration limit imposed by the rationing fixed at ORx). The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. It will be interesting to know why there is need for paying higher wage rate than the normal wage rate for getting more or overtime work from the individuals. And this indifference in prices defines the opportunity costs. This shows with rise in wage rate from w0 to w1 resulting in leisure becoming relatively expensive, he substitutes work (i.e. Amount of labour L1 is directly plotted against higher wage rate w, in panel (b) of Fig. Combination L contains more of both goods X and Y than combination M on IC1. number of hours worked). Thus, indifference curves have been used to explain the concept of consumers surplus, substitutability and complementarity of goods, supply curve of labour of an individual, several principles of welfare economics, burden of different forms of taxation, gain from foreign trade, welfare implications of subsidy granted by the Government, index number problem, mutual advantage of exchange of goods between two individuals and several other things. As explained above in Fig. However, the more important and relevant case of rationing is depicted in Figure 11.8. will work for less hours). Direct taxes are those taxes whose incidence cannot be shifted to others. With the budget line BL and the rationed quantity Rx he will be at point E which lies at lower indifference curve IC0. Under food stamp programme, some stamps or coupons are given to the eligible persons or households. Now, the important question is why an indirect tax (an excise duty or a sales tax on a commodity) causes excess burden on the consumer in terms of loss of welfare or satisfaction. The relationship between marginal utility and demand curve is an important concept in economics that helps to explain how consumers make decisions about what to purchase and at what price. Such a diagram is known as an indifference map where each indifference curve corresponds to a different indifference schedule of the consumer. An indifference curve is a graph showing combination of two goods that give the consumer equal satisfaction and utility. Our mission is to provide an online platform to help students to discuss anything and everything about Economics. With given income of the consumer and prices of the two goods we draw a budget line BL in Figure 11.6. Before publishing your Articles on this site, please read the following pages: 1. 8.7. 4 Important Properties of Indifference Curve (with curve diagram), Copyright 2023 StudeerSnel B.V., Keizersgracht 424, 1016 GC Amsterdam, KVK: 56829787, BTW: NL852321363B01, This property implies that an indifference curve, Indifference curve being downward sloping, means that when the amount of one good in the, combination is increased, the amount of the, other good is reduced. It, thus, maintains the same level of consumer satisfaction in all combinations. Thus, the slope of the income-leisure curve OM/OT equals the wage rate. What is indifference curve importance? 4 Important Properties of Indifference Curve (with curve diagram) - - StuDocu. Since all the combinations give the same amount of satisfaction, the consumer prefers them equally. Likewise, the combinations B and C will give equal satisfaction to the consumer; both being on the same indifference curve IC1. In other words, an indifference curve shows the different bundles of goods that a person is indifferent between, as they all provide the same level of utility or satisfaction to the individual. Indifference curve analysis can be used to explain an individuals choice between income and leisure and to show why a higher overtime wage rate must be paid if more hours of work are to be obtained from the workers. Let us explain how a receipt of food stamps affects the budget line, consumption of food and welfare of the individual. This is the point of consumer equilibrium, where the consumer purchases OM quantity of commodity 'X' and ON quantity of commodity 'Y. It's essentially the cost of the next best alternative that has been forgiven. It is a form of in-kind food subsidy in contrast to the subsidy provided in the form of cash income, often called cash subsidy. It has, however, been empirically observed that when the wage rate is small so that the demand for more income to purchase goods and services is very strong, substitution effect is larger than the income effect so that the net effect of rise in wage rate will be to reduce leisure and increase the supply of labour. Therefore, the ration limits in this case are not actually binding since these do not any more constrain his consumption. Thus, movement from point S to H and as a result the decrease in labour supply by L2 L1 represents the income effect of the rise in wage rate. Thus, as compared to the situation prior to food-stamp subsidy, he is on higher indifference curve showing a greater level of satisfaction or welfare and consuming greater quantities of food and other goods. it helps to compare the satisfaction of different goods/commodities and enables the consumer to attain the equilibrium. Our analysis is based on two assumptions. To do overtime work, he will have to sacrifice more leisure-time and therefore to provide him incentive to forego more leisure and thus to work for more hours it is required to pay him higher wage rate. In India also food stamp programme has been suggested in recent years as an anti-poverty measure. Income OM equals OT multiplied by the hourly wage rate (OM = OT.w) where w represents the wage rate. For instance, if price of food is Rs. Though the consumer can buy the ration amount, that is, ration limit is attainable but he is not willing to consume good X as much as the ration limit permits him. It will be seen from Figure 11.1 that budget line EF touches the indifference curve IC at a point S and is buying OB quantity of food. For instance, a child might be indifferent while having a toy, two comic book, four toy trucks and a single comic book. Perfect complementary goods are used in a certain fixed ratio. An important application of indifference curves is to judge the welfare effects of direct and indirect taxes on the individuals. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. She could also get the same level of utility at point Y, skiing just 1 day and spending 5 days horseback riding. Therefore, given that the consumer is free to spend money as he likes, with cash grant his new equilibrium position must be to the left of point R on the budget line CD where it will be tangent to the higher indifference curve than IC2. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". Combination Q on the higher indifference curve IC2 will give a consumer more satisfaction than combination S on the lower indifference curves IC1 because the combination Q contains more of both goods X and Y than the combination S. Hence the consumer must prefer Q to S. And by transitivity assumption, he will prefer any other combination such as combination R on IC2 (all of which are indifferent with Q) to any combination on IC1 (all of which are indifferent with S) We, therefore, conclude that a higher indifference curve represents a higher level of satisfaction and combinations on it will be preferred to the combinations on a lower indifference curve. That is, income is earned by sacrificing some leisure. For instance, the aim of Governments food subsidy programme may be that the needy families should consume more food so that their health and efficiency may be improved. IC2 is the higher indifference curve than IC1. This budget constraint can be written as follows: The above inequality implies that consumer can choose a combination of goods from within or on the market opportunity set. Before the receipt of food stamps the individual is in equilibrium at point E1 on indifference curve IC1 and is consuming OF1 quantity of food and ON1 quantity of other goods per week. (6) He prefers more of X to less of Y or more of Y to less of X. This gives us TM0 as the budget constraint or which in the present context is also called leisure-income constraint. With the budget line B1CL2 with food stamp subsidy of B1C, the best that the individual can do is to choose the corner point C of budget line B1CL2 which lies on the highest possible indifference curve IC2 which passes through the point C. Therefore, from the point of individual welfare we reach our earlier conclusion that cash subsidy is superior to in-kind subsidy represented by food stamps programme. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. While leisure yields satisfaction to the individual directly, income represents general purchasing power capable of being used to buy goods and services for satisfaction of various wants. A higher indifference curve shows a higher level of satisfaction. Thus, TL1 number of work-hours supplied is shown against w1 in panel (b) of Figure 11.18. If the individual wants to buy more food-grains than B1C, then he will spend some part of his initial income to purchase additional food. It explains consumer behaviour in terms of his preferences or rankings for different combinations of two goods, say X and Y. 11.3 and Fig. An indifferent curve is drawn from the indifference schedule of the consumer. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Copyright 2023 . Further, he is better off than before as he is now at the higher indifference curve IC2. But ration limit Rx for good X is larger than his optimum or equilibrium consumption quantity of good X. An indifference curve is the locus of all those combinations of two goods that yields the same level of utility (satisfaction) to the consumer so that the consumer is indifferent to purchase the particular combination s/he selects. Consider indifference curves IC1 and IC2 in Fig. It has freed the theory of consumption from the unrealistic assumptions of the Marshallian utility analysis. With price line PL2 the individual is in equilibrium at point R on the indifference curve IC at which he is purchasing OA quantity of food. A normal indifference curve will be convex to the origin and it cannot be concave. In this case, therefore, B1C, will be equal to 20 kg. Therefore, we can draw indifference curves between income and leisure both of which give satisfaction to the individual. An indifference curve shows all combinations of goods that provide an equal level of utility or satisfaction. Further, these stamps cannot be traded or transferred to the other people. Let us consider commodities B1 and B2. Several kinds of subsidies are paid to the individuals these days by the Government for promoting welfare of the people. An indifferent curve is drawn from the indifference schedule of the consumer. It is for this reason that we reject indifference curves of concave or straight-line shapes and assume that indifference curves are normally convex to the origin. Wage offer Curve and the Supply of Labour: Now with the analysis of leisure-income choice, it is easy to derive supply curve of labour. cannot always be validly applied to the Government subsidy programme since the above principle is based upon the subjective benefits to the individuals which is not always the correct criteria to judge the desirability of Government subsidy programme. Content Filtrations 6. Food Stamp Programme: In-kind Food Subsidy: Food stamp programme is a type of food subsidy to provide poor people with adequate quantity of food. Consumer Surplus = Maximum Price to be paid willingly Actual Paid Price As one moves along a straight-line indifference curve of perfect substitutes, marginal rate of substitution of one good for another remains constant. Here is an example to understand the indifference curve better. Ms. Bain is indifferent among combinations W, X, and Y. An indifference curve is a graph that represents the different combinations of two goods that give an individual the same level of satisfaction or utility. 11.19. Your email address will not be published. Share Your PPT File. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. The marginal rate of substitution (MRS) indicates if a consumer is willing to sacrifice one good for another commodity while maintaining the same level of utility. However, the final result of the two types of subsidies depends on the value of food stamps relative to preferences and incomes of the individuals whom subsidies are granted. Further, if the same amount of revenue is to be raised through lump-sum tax as with the excise duty, then the new price line AB should be drawn at such a distance from the original price line PL1 that it passes through the point Q1. A budget line reveals all the possibilities in combinations of two goods a consumer can purchase with limited income. Another important conclusion from this possible case is that with either food stamp subsidy or cash subsidy the individual buys more of both food and other goods than he buys before the grant of subsidy. Thus the indifference curve I4 indicates a higher level of satisfaction than I3 which, in turn, is indicative of a higher level of satisfaction than I2 and so on. (10) The consumer arranges the two goods in a scale of preference which means that he has both preference and indifference for the goods. 10 per kg. According to Watson, An indifference schedule is a list of combinations of two commodities the list being so arranged that a consumer is indifferent to the combinations, preferring none of any other. The following is an imaginary indifference schedule representing the various combinations of goods X and Y. In other words, the combinations which lie on a higher indifference curve will be preferred to the combinations which lie on a lower indifference curve. You consent to our cookies if you continue to use our website. (5) The consumers tastes, habits and income remain the same throughout the analysis. It is important to note that in this possible case, the effect of food stamp subsidy is exactly the same as would be the case if cash subsidy is granted to the individual. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. An indifference curve is a graph that represents the different combinations of two goods that give an individual the same level of satisfaction or utility. It's essentially the cost of the next best alternative that has been forgiven.read more play a crucial role in the curve analysis. Property II: Indifference curves are convex to the origin: Another important property of indifference curves is that they are usually convex to the origin. All other variables remain constant. Effect of Rationing On Consumers Welfare: Indifference curve analysis can be used to explain under what conditions rationing of goods by the Government can act as binding or a constraint on consumers choices and further how it affects his welfare. With the imposition of a lump-sum tax (or any other income tax), a certain income is taken away from the consumer and he is pushed to the lower indifference curve (or a lower level of welfare) but he is free to spend the income he is left with as he likes without forcing him to substitute one commodity for another due to any change in relative price. The derivation of supply curve of labour is depicted in 11.18. Consumer Surplus = Maximum Price to be paid willingly Actual Paid Price. Here we discuss the properties of the indifference curve and how to analyze it, along with examples and assumptions. It will be seen that with ration limit fixed at ORx rationing does not act as a binding at all and prove to be quite ineffective in restricting the consumption of good X which is the objective of the policy. It is worth noting that price subsidy on a commodity is also generally called excise subsidy. 8.5 two indifference curves are shown cutting each other at point C. Now take point on indifference curve IC2 and point B on indifference curve IC1 vertically below A. Property IV: A higher indifference curve represents a higher level of satisfaction than a lower indifference curve: The last property of indifference curve is that a higher indifference curve will represent a higher level of satisfaction than a lower indifference curve. Consumer goods are the products purchased by the buyers for consumption and not for resale. 1.). Effect of Subsidies to Consumers: Price Subsidy Vs. Cash Subsidy: An important application of indifference curves is to analyse with its aid the effect of subsidies to the consumers. In Figure 3, consider the indifference curves f and I 2 and combinations N and A respectively on them. Suppose now that Government levies an excise duty (an indirect tax) on good X. Consumer goods companies and the industry offer a vast range of products that heavily contribute to the global economy.read more, the curve features unique combinations or consumption bundles for any two commodities in points. Thus, the consumer will definitely prefer A to B, that is, A will give more satisfaction to the consumer than B. Thus income provides satisfaction indirectly. Third important property of indifference curves is that they cannot intersect each other In other words only one indifference curve will pass through a point in the indifference map 1 his property can be easily proved by first making the two indifference curves cut each other and then showing the absurdity or self-contradictory result it leads to. One possibility is that with the food-stamp subsidy and resultant kinked budget line B1CL2, in Fig. The difference between the chosen plan of action and the next best plan is known as the opportunity cost. Such a situation arises because a consumer consumes a large number of goods and services. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. Hence, relief payments in cash are preferable to a food subsidy because they are economically more efficient, giving the relief receipts either a greater gain at the same cost to the Government or the same gain at a lower cost.. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". When a consumer wants to have more of a commodity, he/she will have to give up some of the other commodity, given that the consumer remains on the same level of utility at constant income. In panel (a) on joining points Q, R and S we get what is often called wage-offer curve which is similar to price-consumption curve. (7) An indifference curve is negatively inclined sloping downward.

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