Chapter 4: The Theory of Individual Behavior Answers To Questions and Problems

Chapter 4: The Theory of Individual Behavior
Answers to Questions and Problems
−Px −15
1. a. The market rate of substitution is = =−3.
Py 5
b. See the figure below.
c. Increasing income to $600 (by $300) expands the budget set, as shown in the figure
below. Since the slope is unchanged, so is the market rate of substitution.
Budget Set
140
120
100
80
Y Increase in
60
Income
40
20
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
X
−20
2. a. Since the slope of the line through point A is =−1and the price of good
20
X is $5, it follows that Py = 5.
b. If the consumer spends all her income on good X she can purchase 20 units. Since
these units cost $5 each, her income must be $100.
c. At point A, the consumer spends ($5)(10) = $50 on good Y, which means that the
remaining $100 - $50 = $50 is being spent on good X. Since good X costs $5 per unit,
point A corresponds to 10 units of good X.
c. The price of good Y decreased to $2.50. The consumer achieves a higher level of
satisfaction at point B.
1
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1. a. The consumer’s budget line is $600 = $10X + $40Y. Rearranging terms and solving
for Y results in Y = 15 – 0.25X.
b. See figure below.
c. When the price of X increases to $20, the budget line becomes $600 = $20X + $40Y
which is equivalent to Y = 15 – 0.5X (after rearranging and simplifying terms). This is
shown in the figure below. The market rate of substitution changes
−Px −10 −Px −20
from = =−0.25 to = =−0.5 .
Py 40 Py 40
Budget Set
16
14
12
10
8
Y
6
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
X
4. This is not always the case. For instance, if the consumer was initially consuming
more of the inferior good than a gift certificate would purchase, then less of the
inferior good will be consumed when given a gift certificate.
5. A half-price sale cuts the price of each and every unit in half. In contrast, a buy-one,
get-one-free deal does not change the relative price of any units between 0 and 1 unit.
Furthermore, it makes the price of units purchased between 1 and 2 units purchased
zero.
6. a. Px = $100, Py = $200 and M = $400
M 400
b. = =2 units.
P y 200
2
M 400
c. P = 100 =4 units.
x
d. 1 unit (since the $100 gift certificate will purchase exactly one unit of good X).
M + $ 100 500
e. = =5 units.
Px 100
f. D, B, C, A
g. Normal
7. a. Consumption of good X will increase and consumption of good Y will decrease.
b. Consumption of good X will increase and consumption of good Y will decrease.
c. Nothing will happen to the consumption of either good.
d. Consumption of good X will decrease and consumption of good Y will increase.
8. All properties hold except Property 4-3 (“Diminishing Marginal Rate of

Substitution”) and Property 4-2 (“More is Better”).
9. a. The initial budget set is depicted in the following figure.
b. Doubling all income and price leaves the budget set unchanged. The increase in
income is sufficient to offset the price increases. The market rate of substitution is
unchanged.
c. The consumer’s income is $600, the price of X is $3 per unit and the price of Y is $6
per unit.
Y
100
3
200 X
10. a. The workers consumer’s income is $600, the price of X is $3 per unit and the price of
Y is $6 per unit.
b. Since the worker is always willing to trade $11 dollars of income for one hour of
leisure, the worker’s indifference curve does not exhibit diminishing marginal rate of
substitution; the worker always trades between the two goods at the same rate. Since
$11 is less than $15, the worker will choose to work 24 hours.
11. These preferences do not exhibit a diminishing marginal rate of substitution since
consumers are always willing to substitute the same amount of store-brand sugar for
an additional pound of producer-brand sugar. When store-brand sugar is $1 per pound
and producer-brand sugar is $3 per pound, the consumer will purchase 24 pounds of
store-label sugar and no producer-brand sugar. After the change, the consumer will
purchase no store-label sugar and 8 pounds of producer-brand sugar.
12. See the figure below. When there is no SNAP, the market rate of substitution is -0.33.
The SNAP program leaves the market rate of substitution unchanged, and a
consumer can purchase $284 of food without spending her income. A dollar-for-
dollar exchange of SNAP benefits for money further expands a consumer’s
opportunity set, potentially making her better off.
Budget Constraint with and without SNAP

80
70
Budget line when SNAP benefits
60 sold on black market for $284
O
t
h 50
e
r 40 Budget line with $284 in SNAP
G
benefits
o 30
o
d 20
s
Initial budget line
10
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240
Food
13. See figure below. The offer expands the consumer’s budget set and allows her to
purchase more tires.
4
Budget Set with and without Buy 3, Get 4th Free Offer
400
Budget line with
“Buy 3, get the 4th
350 Free Offer”
300
250
Income
Spent on 200
Other
Goods 150
100
Initial budget line
50
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Tires
14. See the figure below. The initial market rate of substitution is –0.5. Since, after the
P EM
price decrease, the MRS=−1 ≠−0.67= (where PEM is the price of electronic
PT
media and PT the price of travel) equilibrium has not been achieved. To reach
equilibrium, the business should increase its use of electronic media and decrease
travel.
Budget Set
5
8
6
New budget line
Quantity 4
of
Travel 3
1 Initial budget line

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
-1
Quantity of Electronic Media
6
15. The impacts on the consumer’s budget sets are illustrated in the figure below. As is
shown in the diagram, if the consumer has a strong preference for other goods (so
that the preferred quantity of other goods is greater than 10 units), the cash is
preferred even though it is taxed. Otherwise, the non-taxable, employer-sponsored
health insurance program allows an employee to achieve a higher indifference curve.
Budget Line with Employer Sponsored Health Insurance
14
12
10
Budget line with
8 health insurance
Other benefit
Goods 6
2
Initial budget line
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Quantity of Health Insurance
16. Under the existing plan, a worker that does not “goof off” produces 3 copiers per hour
and thus is paid $18 each hour. Under the new plan, each worker would be paid a flat
wage of $16 per hour. While it might appear on the surface that the company would
save $2 per hour in labor costs by switching plans, the flat wage would be a lousy
idea. Under the current plan, workers get paid the $18 only if they work hard during
the hour and produce 3 machines that pass inspection. Under the new plan, workers
would get paid $16 an hour regardless of how many units they produce. Since your
firm has no supervisors to monitor the workers, you should not favor the plan.
17. As shown the figure below, the budget line when more than 10 dozen bagels are
purchased annually under the frequent buyer program is always greater than the
budget line when the firm sells each dozen bagels at a 3 percent discount. However,
the budget line for consumers who purchase fewer than 10 dozen bagels per year is
greater under the 3 percent per dozen discount.
7
Comparison of Budget Lines Under Different Offers
250
Budget line under the
frequent buyer
200
program
150
Income
Spent on
Other
Goods 100
50 Budget line with

3 percent
discount
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Quantity of Bagels (dozens)
18. Yes. Since pizza is an inferior good, if the consumer is given $50 in cash she will
definitely spend it entirely on downloads from iTunes – just as she would if given a
$50 gift certificate for music downloads.
19. The following figure illustrates a consumer’s budget line when a firm offers a
“quantity discount.” A consumer will never purchase exactly 8 bottles of wine, since
at this kink in the opportunity set the consumer would always be better off by buying
more or less wine.
250
200
150
Quantity
of Other
Goods 100
50
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Quantity of Wine
8
20. The following figure contains profit as a function of output. Output when managers
are compensated based solely on output is 20 units and profits are zero. In contrast,
when managers’ compensation is based solely on profits, output is 10 units and
profits are $200. When managers’ compensation is based on a combination of output
and profit, output ranges between 10 and 20 units and profit will be between zero and
$200. The exact combination of output and profit depends on how these variables are
weighted.
250
200
150
Profits ($)
100
50
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Output
21. The following figures illustrate Albert’s and Sid’s opportunity sets. Since there are 24
hours per day, at the new wage rate of $22 per hour Albert will supply 14 hours of
labor per day (24 – 10), and Sid will supply 10 hours of labor per day (24 – 14).
This seemingly contradictory result is explained by decomposing the wage change

into the substitution effect and income effect. The diminishing marginal rate of
substitution between income and leisure implies that the substitution effect will
increase the amount of leisure consumed by each worker (decrease the amount of
labor supplied). Since after the wage change Albert is observed consuming less
leisure (supplying more labor), the income effect dominates the substitution effect. In
contrast, the substitution effect dominates the income effect for Sid; since Sid is
observed consuming more leisure (supplying less labor) after the wage change.
9
Albert’s Opportunity Set
700
600
500
400
Income
300
200
100
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Leisure Hours
Sid’s Opportunity Set

700
600
500
400
Income
300
200
100
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Leisure Hours
22. Gift cards are not merely a fad. Retailers experience significant benefits from gift
cards since they minimize product returns; independent of whether the good is normal
or inferior. Gift cards can also benefit consumers. A gift card does not impact the
amount purchased for one good (say the good on the Y axis), but shifts out the budget
constraint for the other good (the good on the X axis) by the face value of the gift
card. The expanded budget constraint permits the consumer to reach a higher
indifference curve; resulting in greater utility.
23. Under the Old Plan, consumers consumed 3,500 gigabytes of Internet traffic for
£399.99. The budget line under the Flat-Rate Plan, however, is significantly different.
Consumers can choose to now spend all their income on all other goods (AOG),
represented by point A on the AOG axis, or consume the same amount of AOG as
10
they did under the old plan along with any amount of Internet traffic up to the
maximum volume in a month. Optimizing consumers will choose the corner solution
represented by the same number of units of AOG as the Old Plan and 10,000
gigabytes of broadband Internet traffic. Thus, UK consumers are necessarily better
off (assuming similar quality of service). The Internet service provider (ISP),
however, gains no additional revenues and presumably must increase it network
capacity. Therefore, the ISP may earn lower profit (ignoring other factors).
Old Plan Flat-Rate Plan

AOG AOG
A
3,500 10,000 3,500 10,000
24. The movement from selling 9 bottles of Coke to 7 bottles of Coke, as shown in the
graph, is the change in sales due to the substitution effect. We know this because it is
determined by keeping the consumer on the same indifference curve, and comparing
purchases at the two different prices. The price increase also has an income effect,
since it effectively lowers the consumer’s overall purchasing power. Since Coke is a
normal good, this lowering of income results in lower sales. Adding this to the
substitution effect means that sales will be less than 7 bottles.
25. We can determine aggregate demand by summing up quantity demanded for each
individual at every price. At a given price, P, quantity demanded by a female
customer is 24 – 2 × P, and at that same price, quantity demanded by a male customer
is 27 – P. Summing gives us 24 – 2 × P + 27 – P = 51 – 3P. So, for any price P, the
total demand is 51 – 3P. If we call total demand QT, then we have the aggregate
demand equation: QT = 51 – 3P. We often want to graph demand using the
11
inverse demand function, and we can do that here. Solving the aggregate demand
curve for P gives us: P = 17 – (1/3) × QT.
12

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Chapter 4: The Theory of Individual Behavior

Answers to Questions and Problems

b. See figure below.

6. a. Px = $100, Py = $200 and M = $400

7. a. Consumption of good X will increase and consumption of good Y will decrease.

b. Consumption of good X will increase and consumption of good Y will decrease.

c. Nothing will happen to the consumption of either good.

d. Consumption of good X will decrease and consumption of good Y will increase.

8. All properties hold except Property 4-3 (“Diminishing Marginal Rate of

9. a. The initial budget set is depicted in the following figure.

Budget Constraint with and without SNAP

1 Initial budget line

Budget Line with Employer Sponsored Health Insurance

50 Budget line with

This seemingly contradictory result is explained by decomposing the wage change

Sid’s Opportunity Set

Old Plan Flat-Rate Plan

3,500 10,000 3,500 10,000

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