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Question
State the meaning and properties of production possibilities frontier.
Solution
PPC is the curve which shows the combinations of two goods and services that can be produced with a fuller utilisation of a given amount of resources in the most efficient way and with a given production technology.
Properties of PPC
1) Concave to the origin: PPC curve is concave to the origin. This is because of the increasing opportunity cost i.e. in accordance with the law of increasing opportunity cost.
2) Downward sloping curve: PPC curve is downward sloping from left to right. This is because the production of every additional unit of one good, more and more units of other good has to be sacrificed.
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RELATED QUESTIONS
Explain the three properties of the indifference curves.
Define an indifference curve.
Explain why an indifference curve is downward sloping from left to right.
Why is an indifference curve negatively sloped? Explain.
If Marginal Rate of Substitution is constant throughout, the Indifference curve will be :(choose the correct alternative)
a. Parallel to the x-axis.
b. Downward sloping concave.
c. Downward sloping convex.
d. Downward sloping straight line.
If Marginal Rate of Substitution is increasing throughout, the Indifference Curve will be: (Choose the correct alternative)
a. Downward sloping convex
b. Downward sloping concave
c. Downward sloping straight line
d. Upward sloping convex
A consumer consumes only two goods. If the price of one of the goods falls, the indifference curve: (Choose the correct alternative)
a. Shifts upwards
b. Shifts downwards
c. Can shift both upwards or downwards
d. Does not shift
Explain why is an indifference curve is Convex.
Define an indifference map. Why does indifference curve to the right show more utility? Explain.
What are the properties of indifference curves?
Read the following passage and answer the question that follows:
| The ordinal list revolution originates in the criticism of the psychological foundations of the theory of demand, namely, the principle of decreasing marginal utility as Alfred Marshall ([1890] 1898) used it. The rejection of hedonist hypotheses led Irving Fisher (1892) and Pareto (1896-97, 1900, 1909) to favour an objective or "positive" approach to economic concepts. The "ordinal list revolution" (Omarzabal 1995, 116) is grounded in a methodological transformation of economics that put the facts of objective experience as a foundation of economics and provided a research program for the ensuing years (Green and Moss 1993; Lewin 1996). Mathematically, ordinalism is entirely based upon the idea that one can dispense with the use of a specific utility function and that no meaning shall be attached to utility measurement, except as an ordinal principle. Clearly, the development of ordinalism must be separated from the introduction of the concept of the indifference curve. Ordinalism was first advocated in Fisher's "Mathematics Investigations" (1892) and Pareto's Sunto (1900) and Manual ([1909] 1971), while the indifference curve had appeared in F. Y. Edge Worth's Mathematical Psychics (1881). It was thus only through Fisher's and Pareto's recasting that the concept of the indifference curve became irreversibly associated with the promotion of ordinalism. Along the way, the recasting of the theory of choice along ordinal list lines raised a number of issues (about integrability, measurability, and complementarity) that would be progressively settled. The reasonable closing date for the ordinalist revolution is 1950, after Houthakker's (1950) and Samuelson's (1950) contributions. From the late 1920s, the Paretian school was progressively gaining a larger audience while the use of the concept of marginal utility and other derivative concepts was challenged. Consequently, demand theory was recast along with the principles of individual preferences and ordinal utility functions. Nevertheless, English authors proved very silent about the meaning of indifference curves. Most if not all of the reflections after 1920 about the nature of indifference curves took place in America, mainly under the impulse of Henry Schultz at Chicago. This is an American story. |
How is utility measured in Ordinal utility theory?
Which of these is not a property of indifference curve?
"Higher indifference curve represents fewer quantities of one or both goods, a higher indifference curve shows higher utility level." Choose the correct option for the above mentioned statement:
Which of the following statements are incorrect?
Will you defend or refute the case depicted in the following diagram? Provide a rationale in support of your view.
