As of May 31, 2023, we have updated our Code of Conduct.

Questions tagged [microeconomics]

Microeconomics is a branch of economics that studies the market behavior of individual actors (usually firms and consumers) and the aggregation of their actions in different institutional frameworks (usually the market).

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
2 votes
2 answers
368 views

Cost function from an easy CES production function

How can I find the cost function c(w,p) given that the production is $f(x) = x_1+x_2$ I did Lagrangien's method but my problem is that I got no $x_1$ and no $x_2$ after taking the derivate. So I would ...
victor's user avatar
  • 61
2 votes
1 answer
860 views

Finding the conditional input demand function

Find the conditional input demand function and cost function for the given production function $$f(a,b,c,d)=\min\{ a,2b\} + \max\{3c,4d\} $$ In The solution, The production function is defined as $f(x,...
studentp's user avatar
  • 110
2 votes
1 answer
194 views

Subgame perfect equilibrium and expected profit

I am so confused because I cannot set up the monopolist's profit maximization problem.What I did is the following one: Any help will be appreciated. Thank you.
Stefanos Makridis's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
291 views

Stackelberg setup

I am completely confused because I cannot find the leader's best response. I do not know if it is exactly the same as it was a Cournot game. What I did is: Any help will be appreciated a lot. Thank ...
Stefanos Makridis's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
340 views

Question on uncertainity

Please imagine that Nicole is uncertain of her future wealth. Her wealth in the bad state of the world is zero. Her wealth in the good state is $w>0$. Each state is initially equally likely. ...
b11bb's user avatar
  • 305
2 votes
2 answers
138 views

The economics of continually selling a product for under its market value?

What are the economic principles behind a company continually selling a product for well under its market value. Continually here expressing that it does not appear to be some short term method to ...
Jonathon's user avatar
  • 121
2 votes
1 answer
1k views

applications of the slutsky equation

Calculate the substitution and income effects for the following utility function: $$ u(x,y)=\frac{x^a}{a}+\frac{y^a}{a}$$ I know that we are supposed to use the Slutsky equation which accounts for ...
Irina's user avatar
  • 113
2 votes
1 answer
287 views

Consumer preference and price in the Cobb-Douglas function

I believe I’m using the most basic version of Cobb-Douglas: $U(x,y)=x^\beta * y ^{(1-\beta)}$. The question I have is: in this example would a consumer’s preference ($\beta$) change if the price of ...
vizie's user avatar
  • 47
2 votes
2 answers
562 views

What is an opportunity cost?

Mankiw's definition and explanation of opportunity cost here is confusing. Since when have explicit costs become part of opportunity cost? Here is what the guide says: The concept of opportunity ...
london's user avatar
  • 1,990
2 votes
2 answers
7k views

What does perfectly inelastic demand imply about gains from trade and domestic consumers?

Source: p 191, Question 9.7b, 9.7c, Principles of Microeconomics, 7 Ed, 2014, by NG Mankiw Consider a country that imports a good. True or false. Explain your answer. b) “If demand is perfectly ...
user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
1k views

Why is the long-run average production cost not necessarily the same as the minimum average total cost? [duplicate]

As you can see from the graph, the LRATC doesn't touch the SRATC curves when they're at their minimum. Why is this so?
Alice.Sumarno's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
161 views

Does price affect quantity or vice versa?

On nearly all graphs found within economics textbooks, quantity is label on the x-axis and price on the y-axis, implying that the quantity supplied affects the price. Is this really so? Intuition ...
Nick's user avatar
  • 125
2 votes
1 answer
11k views

Intuition behind Engel Aggregation and Cournot Aggregation

Could anyone provide a possibly intuitive and friendly explanation to the Engel Aggregation $(\sum s_i \eta_i = 1)$ and Cournot Aggregation$(\sum s_i \epsilon_{ij} = -s_j)$? Here, $s_i = \frac{p_i,x_i}...
David Kim's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
193 views

Cobb Douglas relation with uncompensated law of demand

Does a Cobb Douglas or homothetic function satisfy the uncompensated law of demand?
user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
96 views

Mechanisms of communication in game theory

In the spirit of the previous question that I have done, here considering the paper here I am trying to make the matching definition $2.2$ here. I will give two definitions and I would like to clarify ...
Nav89's user avatar
  • 468
1 vote
0 answers
218 views

Most important but untested theories in economics? [closed]

In the opinion of the economists here, what are some of the more important theories in economics that remain untested? By untested I mean theories that, though perhaps evaluated using empirical data, ...
123's user avatar
  • 2,911
1 vote
1 answer
2k views

Optimal production level for a typical firm in long-run

Assuming all firms have identical cost functions. Now suppose there is an increasing shift in the demand curve. As we all know that for increasing costs case, both average costs (AC) and marginal ...
Yoda's user avatar
  • 93
1 vote
1 answer
54 views

Net and gross market clearing in endowment economy

My question relates to an endowment economy. We assume perfect competition and markets clear, i.e. supply = demand. The way my professor defined it, he said endowment (per good) = supply (per good) = ...
Nick's user avatar
  • 21
1 vote
1 answer
78 views

Will there be any competition amongst cement retailers?

If we consider a cement manufaturer in a given country, say India, then will the cement retailers of that companies' product compete with each other? And if so, then what kind of a competition will it ...
Student's user avatar
  • 269
1 vote
1 answer
45 views

Perfect competition allocations

Suppose the market demand is $P(Q) = \alpha - \beta(Q)$ where $Q = \sum q_1$. Variable $q_i$ denotes the output of the $i$th firm and $Q$ is the total output. The marginal cost for each firm is $c$. ...
Rick_Morty's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
161 views

What is opportunity cost really?

It seems to me there that the most common definition of opportunity cost in economics is that opportunity cost is the net benefit of the next best alternative forgone. (See this question: What is ...
Vivaan Daga's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
168 views

Quasicon... and quasilinearity

From the discussion under this question: Can utility function $U(x,y)$ that is both quasiconcave and quasiconvex always be transformed (via some positive monotonic function) into a quasilinear form $v(...
Giskard's user avatar
  • 28.1k
1 vote
1 answer
798 views

How does the limit of $U(x, y) = (ax^{-c} + by^{-c})^{-\frac{1}{c}}$ as c approaches 0 yield the Cobb-Douglas utlity function? [duplicate]

\begin{equation*} U(x, y) = (ax^{-c} + by^{-c})^{-\frac{1}{c}} \end{equation*} I ask this mainly because after logging both sides of the Utility equation (the first step to proving the assertion, I ...
bloopton's user avatar
  • 387
1 vote
2 answers
2k views

Utility function used to indicate bliss point

How does one create a utility function to indicate existence of a bliss point? what do the goods marshillian demands look like in such a situation?
EconJohn's user avatar
  • 8,034
1 vote
1 answer
136 views

What is a simple demand function that allows for different price and income elasticities than 1 and -1?

Cobb-Douglas utility functions assume price elasticity of $-1$ and income elasticity of $1$. Are there any utility functions with two goods that lead to a demand function, where you have the choice of ...
Victor Nielsen's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
810 views

market equilibrium quantity $\ne$ firm profit maximising quantity?

Consider a perfectly competitive market with equilibrium price $P_{eq}$ and quantity $Q_{eq}$ and firm with profit maximising quantity $Q_f$ as illustrated below: I guess any firm in the market would ...
BCLC's user avatar
  • 360
1 vote
1 answer
87 views

Is the study of the volunteer sector inappropriate for a labour economist?

In the basics of labour economics the driving factor for increase in labour supply (for the workers in a given market) is increase in wages. The volunteer sector consists of general and skilled ...
EconJohn's user avatar
  • 8,034
1 vote
0 answers
76 views

I present a communication game - Could you please make comments on my assumptions, notation and properties that I may have not considered yet?

I consider the following communication game. Suppose that we have $I$ players and each one of them learns a private signal $s_i=(s_{i,1},s_{i,2},...,s_{i,k})$, where $k$ is finite and also, every ...
studen21's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
195 views

When were the First and Second Welfare Theorems proven? [closed]

What years and by who were the first and second welfare theorems first proven?
B T's user avatar
  • 539
1 vote
1 answer
381 views

How does demand-supply equilibrium interact with profit maximisation?

My understanding of supply and demand is that at higher prices sellers are more willing to supply and buyers will demand less, and the total transaction volume will be supply or demand, whichever is ...
J.G.'s user avatar
  • 383
1 vote
1 answer
354 views

Any Resources for Micro Comprehensive Exams?

I'm currently preparing for a first year microeconomics comprehensive exam and have been looking for good resources for a while. Ideally, I was looking for any school site that has a list of (and ...
AndrewC's user avatar
  • 1,370
1 vote
1 answer
591 views

Tadelis ‘trading places’ Bayesian game

My question concerns the following problem: two players, $1$ and $2$, each owns a house. Each player $i$ values his own house at $v_{i}$. The value of player $i$'s house to the other player, i.e. to ...
Charles's user avatar
  • 281
1 vote
1 answer
369 views

What is the concept of ordinal utility?

I have read in many books that since utility cannot be measured - so ordinal concept or comparison concept is used. If that is so, how can one define a mathematical function for utility which gives a ...
DrStrangeLove's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
587 views

Short cuts to solve Cobb Douglas Utility function (minimization)

Say a Cobb Douglas like: $$\max_{X,Y\: s.t. X \cdot P_x+ Y \cdot P_y=I} U=X^\alpha Y^\beta$$ When it comes to maximization I would do the following way (for the fastest result): x: $\alpha/(\alpha +...
zhe_charmander's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
150 views

Job search theory in discrete time

Let us assume that there is a labor who lives in discrete time universe and discounts future payoffs with the discount factor $b\in (0,1)$. And we assume that this labor is at period $t=0$ at first. ...
studentp's user avatar
  • 110
1 vote
1 answer
1k views

What are some applications of Real Analysis in Graduate Economics?

I am interested as to what areas of masters/PhD coursework that learning the fundamentals of Real Analysis would be beneficial for? I am aware of its applications in Econometrics proofs and analysis, ...
Brennan's user avatar
  • 620
1 vote
1 answer
838 views

Nested CES Production Function

If I have four input factors (a, b, c, b) and I want to construct a nested CES production function such that (a, b) are substitutes, (c, d) are substitutes and [(a, b), (c, d)] are complements, I.e. a,...
user10158324's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
136 views

Dead Weight Loss (Tax)

Problem Given demand $D(p)=A-ap$, and $A,a>0$ and a fixed price $0<p_1<A/a$ by some company. My solution so far CS is $CS=\int_{p}^{A/a}D(p)dp=\int_{p}^{A/a}(A-ap)dp=\frac{1}{2a}(A-ap)^2=\...
user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
976 views

Pure exchange economy with free and non-free disposal

Question is as follows: My answers are (I) Let k is constant utility level Then $$k=\sqrt{x_A^1x_A^2}$$ $$k^2/x_A^1=x_A^2$$ The first derivative is negative. So the indifference curve is ...
b11bb's user avatar
  • 305
1 vote
1 answer
305 views

Consumer theory with lump sum fee

Please look at only part ii. I wrote budget constraint $x_1+x_2=10-f$ When I don’t pay fee, my optimal value values${}=(1,1).$ In the case of free disposal, $b_1=b_2=5$ but I consume only $x_1=0$ ...
B11b.'s user avatar
  • 33
1 vote
1 answer
88 views

Calculating optimal level of negative externality

I am trying to solve the following question(s): Let $h \geq 0$ represent a negative externality of a firm's production on one (representative) consumer. The consumer has a quasi-linear utility ...
asd7's user avatar
  • 61
1 vote
1 answer
355 views

Question on subgame perfect equilibrium

Consider a world of complete information with two agents X and Y and two time periods 1 and 2. Person X only lives in second period. Person Y lives in 1st and 2nd periods both. X and Y are each ...
studentp's user avatar
  • 110
1 vote
1 answer
213 views

Find Pareto optimal allocations and the core for the following economies

Find Pareto optimal allocations and the core for the following economies. There are two consumers and two goods. Utility functions are $u_1(x_1,y_1)= 10x_1-(y_1-2)^2$ and $u_2(x_2,y_2) = 10y_2 − (x_2 −...
studentp's user avatar
  • 110
1 vote
0 answers
124 views

Kuhn Tucker optimization problem and game theory [duplicate]

Consider a game with two players, where each player i= 1 ,2 has preferences $u_i$= $s_i^a$$c_i^{1-a}$, where c_i is the consumption and $s_i$ is social interaction. $s_i$ is given by : $s_i$ = $t_i$ + ...
Stefanos Makridis's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
69 views

Maximization under two different states of the world [closed]

What I did is the following one but I am not sure at all: Any help will be appreciated. Thank you.
Stefanos Makridis's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
542 views

How to prove that a concave production imply that the input requirement sets are convex?

According to page 7 of this slide, "A convex production set Y implies that the associated input requirement set V(y) is convex". How can one go about proving it?
Aqqqq's user avatar
  • 382
0 votes
2 answers
162 views

Algebraic approach towards convexity

I have a function: $ u(x) = x_{1} + x_{2} + \min\{x_{1}, x_{2}\}$. How do we algebraically show if it's convex or not? Also, what would be the general way to show if any given function is convex.
Frodo Baggins's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
309 views

Fehr & Schmidt, ultimatum game, inequaltiy aversion, perfect subgame Nash equilibrium

I am preparing for an exam. I have found an old exam but I have no solutions for it, so I tried to solve it, but I dont know if I did it correctly and need therefore your help. The problem looks as ...
Pete's user avatar
  • 45
0 votes
5 answers
159 views

Which measure to check in analysis (p-values or $R^2$)?

In an analysis e.g. OLS regression which measure would you look at? $R^2$, $adjusted-R^2$ or $p-value$? How would you consider a regression with p-values >0.15 but with an $R^2$ of 40%? In general ...
Klapaucius's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
73 views

Why might a monotone increasing but nonlinear transformation of a utility function not represent the same preferences?

According to a textbook, a monotone increasing but nonlinear transformation of a utility function might not represent the same preferences. Why is it so? An example of such preference would be ...
Aqqqq's user avatar
  • 382