BE Unit 3

Business Economics
Unit 3
Kingshuk Sarkar
Demand Curve
• Relationship between the quantity of a good that consumers are
willing to buy and the price of the good
Supply Curve
• Relationship between the quantity of a good that producers are
willing to sell and the price of the good
Market Equilibrium
• Price that equates the quantity supplied to quantity demanded.
• Tendency in a free market for price to change until the market clears
Adjustment
• Surplus: Situation in which the quantity supplied exceeds the quantity
demanded
• Shortage: Situation in which the quantity demanded exceeds the

quantity supplied.
General law of demand and supply
• If excess supply, price falls.
• If excess demand, price rises

Changes in market equilibrium
• When the supply curve shifts to the right, the market clears at a lower
price and larger quantity
• When demand curve shifts to the right, the market clears at a higher
price and larger quantity
• New equilibrium following shifts in supply and demand
• Supply and demand for New York city office space
Elasticity
• Percentage change in one variable resulting from a 1 percent increase
in another
• Price elasticity of demand: Percentage change in quantity demanded

of a good resulting from a 1 percent increase in its price
• Linear demand curve
• Infinitely elastic demand curve
Principle that consumers will buy as much of a good as they can get at a
single price but for any higher price the quantity demanded drops to
zero while for any lower price the quantity demanded increases
without limit.
• Completely inelastic demand
Principle that consumers will buy a fixed quantity of a good regardless
of its price.
• Income elasticity of demand
Percentage change in the quantity demanded resulting from a 1
percent increase in income
Cross price elasticity of demand

Percentage change in the quantity demanded of one good resulting
from a 1 percent increase in the price of another.
Effect of government intervention: Price
control
Market equilibrium
Calculating elasticity
Short run and the long run
Consumer Behavior: Assumption
• Completeness
• Transitivity
• More is better (MIB)

Indifference Curve
The indifference curve U that passes through market basket A shows all
baskets that give the consumer the same level of satisfaction as does
market basket A; these include baskets B and D. Our consumer prefers
basket E, which lies above U, to A, but prefers A to H or G, which lie
below U.
An Indifference Map
Indifference Curves Can Not Intersect
The Marginal Rate of Substitution
Maximum amount of a good that a consumer is willing to give up in
order to obtain one additional unit of another good.
Diminishing marginal rate of substitution
Indifference curves are usually convex or bowed inward. The term
convex means that the slope of the indifference curve increases (i.e
becomes less negative) as we move down along the curve.
Why Convex?
As more and more of one good is consumed, we can expect that a
consumer will prefer to give up fewer and fewer units of a second good
to get additional units of the first one. As we move down the
indifference curve and consumption of food increases, the additional
satisfaction that a consumer gets from still more food will diminish.
Thus she will give up less and less clothing to obtain additional food.
Perfect Substitutes
Two goods for which the marginal rate of substitution of one for the
other is a constant.
Perfect Complementary
• Two goods for which MRS is zero or infinite, the indifference curves
are shaped as right angles.
Utility Functions and Indifference Curves
A utility function can be represented by a set of indifference curves,
each with a numerical indicator.
Ordinal and Cardinal Utility Function
• Utility function that generates a ranking of market baskets in order of
most to least preferred.
• Cardinal utility function describing by how much one market basket is

preferred to another.
Budget Constraints
Constraints that consumers face as a result of limited incomes.
Budget Line
• All combinations of goods for which the total amount of money spent
is equal to income
• A budget line describes the combinations of goods that can be
purchased given the consumers income and prices of the goods.
The Effect of Changes in Income and Prices
Consumers Equilibrium
• A consumer maximizes satisfaction by choosing market basket A. At
this point, the budget line and the indifference curve are tangent and
no other higher level of satisfaction can be attained. At point A, the
point of maximization, the MRS between the two goods equals

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Business Economics

• Shortage: Situation in which the quantity demanded exceeds the

• If excess demand, price rises

• Price elasticity of demand: Percentage change in quantity demanded

Cross price elasticity of demand

• More is better (MIB)

• Cardinal utility function describing by how much one market basket is

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