Ôn Midterm Mic
Ôn Midterm Mic
Ôn Midterm Mic
Lec 3:
- Elasticity: is a measure of how much buuyers and sellers respond to
changes in market conditions.
- Demand is inelastic if demand shifts only slightly when the price of the
good changes.
- Price elasticity of demand: Measure of how much quantity demanded of
a good responds To a change in the price of that good
Formula: Percentage change in quantity demanded Divided by the
percentage change in price
Elastic demand
– Increase in price
• Decrease in total revenue
Lec 4:
- Welfare economics: the study of how the allocation of resources affects
economic well-being
- Willingness to pay: the maximum amount that a buyer will pay for a
good
- Consumer surplus: Amount a buyer is wtp for a good minus amount the
buyer actually pays for it
+ CS = WTP – real price
+ Area below the demand curve and above the price
- Producer Surplus: Amount a seller is paid for a good minus the seller’s
cost of providing it.
+ PS = Price – Cost
+ area below the price and above the supply curve
- Market efficiency:
+ measure: TS = CS + PS = (WTP-P)+(P-C)= WTP – C
+ maximium at equilibrium point
LEC 5:
- Price control: The government/policy makers set the price controls When
Policymakers believe that the market price is unfair to sellers or buyers
- price ceiling: a legal maximum on the price at which a good can be sold
+ Not binding: above the equilibrium price and no effect
+ Binding: Below the equilibrium price, cause shortage
- Price floor: a legal minimum on the price at which a good can be sold
+ Not binding: Below equilibrium price and no effect
+ Binding: above the equilibrium price and cause surplus
- Tax incidence: the manner in which the burden of a tax is shared among
participants in a market
+ tax on seller:
+ tax on buyer:
-
- Tax wedge: P(buyer) – P(seller)
- Taxes levied on sellers and taxes levied on buyers are equivalent.
- Who pay more tax:
+ Elastic S, Inelastic D => buyer pay more
+ Inelastic S, elastic D => seller pay more
- Tax revenue:
T = the size of the tax
• Q = the quantity of
the good sold
• T x Q = Tax Revenue
- DWL: The fall in total surplus that results from a market distortion, such
as a tax.
- Determinants of DWL: The greater the elasticities of demand and
supply:
the larger will be the decline in equilibrium quantity and,
the greater the deadweight loss of a tax.
LEC 6:
- The theory of consumer choice examines: the tradeoffs inherent in
decisions made by consumers.
- Budget constraint: Limit on the consumption bundles that a consumer
can afford
- Slope of the budget constraint: Rate at which the consumer can trade
one good for the other. Not the same at all points
= Change in the vertical distance Divided by the change in the horizontal
distance
= Q1/Q2 = P2/P1 = y/x
+ Graph: straight line connect the max output of 1 good to another
- Indifference curve: Shows consumption bundles that give the consumer
the same level of satisfaction
+ Combinations of goods on the same curve
•Same satisfaction
+ Slope: Marginal rate of substitution is Rate at which a consumer is
willing to trade one good for another
- Four properties of indifference curves
1. Higher indifference curves are preferred to
lower ones
– Higher indifference curves – more goods
2. Indifference curves are downward sloping
3. Indifference curves do not cross
4. Indifference curves are bowed inward
+ Special case:
Perfect substitute: Straight line
Perfect complements: L shape
- Optimization:
+ Point where indifference curve and budget
constraint touch
+ Best combination of goods available to the
consumer
+ Slope of indifference curve
• Equals slope of budget constraint