# 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).

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### Can the indifference curve (set) not be a curve at all?

Does the indifference set have to be in the form of a curve, or of a form that is well-known? If it is not necessary to be a curve, how would the set look like? Can I get some examples? If we follow ...
1answer
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0answers
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### Unsolveable Demand/Utility Problem?

A consume has a preference relation on $\mathbb{R}^4_+$ with a utility function defined as $$U(x_1,x_2,x_3)=(\ln(3x_1+2x_2+x_3))^3$$ Find the demand at prices $p=(1,1,1)$ and wage $4$. Attempt I ...
6answers
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### Why are cost functions often assumed to be convex in microeconomics?

Why are cost functions typically assumed to be convex in producer theory of (introductory) microeconomics? For me this goes against the intuition of economies of scale. There are fixed costs (FC) ...
0answers
31 views

### Long run equilibrium price under perfect competition

I have a problem related to Ricardian rent. I have one firm, let's call it X firm, and all of the other firms in the market. All firms have to pay some transportation costs due to their land except ...
1answer
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### Why does a higher risk aversion leads to a lower intertemporal elasticity of substitution?

Mathematically, a higher risk aversion leads to a lower intertemporal elasticity of substitution (there is an inverse relationship). But why? If I become more risk-averse, I would like to smooth my ...
1answer
34 views

### Concept of Utility in demand systems

I have seen that researchers use different utility function in demand systems estimation such as Stone Geary. What is the role of these utility functions? What are utility function other than stone ...
0answers
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### Pure Nash equilibrium in bidding game?

According to the answer key for a problem set, there is no pure strategy Nash equilibrium in the following problem. Yet I can't see why not. Could it be an error in the answer key? Here's the problem: ...
1answer
68 views

### Utility function and homogenous of degree zero

I've a utility function which is given by ($x_i$-$b_i$)$^{c_i}$ $\sqrt{x_2}$ . What values of b and c can I input to ensure Homogenous of degree zero in prices and wealth? I think c will be positive....
1answer
118 views

### Are the goods in additively separable utility functions normal goods?

Inspired by this answer. To make it a bit more precise, by normal good I mean demand is (not necessarily strictly) increasing in income, and by additively separable utility function I mean that a ...
1answer
106 views

### Expected utility theory (Lottery notation)

A wheel of fortune has outcomes $S=\left \{ 1000,100,50,20,0 \right \}$ as money prices. A consumer has the preferences $$20\sim \left ( \frac{2}{100}\cdot1000 \oplus \frac{98}{100} \cdot 0 \right )$$ ...
1answer
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### Cobb Douglas relation with uncompensated law of demand

Does a Cobb Douglas or homothetic function satisfy the uncompensated law of demand?
1answer
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### Production Set: Not satisfying Free Disposal Assumption

I saw the figure which satisfies the free disposal assumption in Mas-Colell, Whinston and Green (1995), but wondering if there is a figure that DOES NOT satisfy the free disposal assumption? Any leads ...
0answers
33 views

### Perfect information game

Assume that there are two parents A and B who are tempted to pick up their children late. We denote the set of parents $N = {A, B}$. Each parent $i \in N$ chooses from the action set $A^i = {E, L}$ ...
1answer
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### Trigonometric Cost Function [duplicate]

I've been reading on producer theory and came up with a ridiculous question. Has anyone tried to model costs with a trigonometric function? would it work with the assumptions we need? Thanks!
1answer
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### Derive demand function from utility [closed]

Never encountered such a problem as I am new. $$U(x_1,x_2)=(a\ln(x_1)+b\ln(x_2))^n$$ and $a,b,n>0$ with income $w>0$ and prices $p_1,p_2>0$. Find the demand function. Attempt I am thinking ...
0answers
31 views

### Can an inferior good be necessary?

Usually the definition of necessary goods is the income elasticity between 0 and 1. But can a good with -0.5 income elasticity be considered necessary? There is this link that says that all the ...
0answers
47 views

### Better Model for Dynamic pricing - Stackelberg model or Bertrand model

Objective - I am building a dynamic pricing tool for airline tickets which will consider the competitor prices. Taking competitor price as reference, this tool will price the ticket. Also instead of ...
2answers
129 views

### Is it true that for Cobb-Douglas preferences, the demand function is always iso-elastic?

As we know that $Q*P=const.$ for Cobb-Douglas preferences, we can thus conclude that $\frac{dQ/Q}{dP/P}$ is always $-1$: $$QP=const. \implies 0=d(PQ)=Q\ dP+P\ dQ \implies \frac{dQ}{Q}=-\frac{dP}{P}$$...
1answer
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### How do I determine PED from price consumption curve with slope of zero?

Given a budget for two goods $x_1$ and $x_2$, a fixed price for good 2 and three prices for good 1 with the corresponding optimal amount of good 1 ($x_1$), I like to calculate the PED for good 1. By ...
1answer
59 views

### Without knowing the Slutsky equation and income/substitution effect, how can I show a certain good is inferior or Giffen?

Say I've got a function $x_1(p_1,p_2,m)$ where $p_1, p_2$ are the prices for good 1, good 2 respectively and m is the income. Now, I haven't heard of the Slutsky equation yet nor the income/...
2answers
213 views