ESS OF ECON LL\AC 11E
ESS OF ECON LL\AC 11E
11th Edition
ISBN: 9781264093083
Author: SCHILLER
Publisher: MCG
Question
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Chapter 4, Problem 1QFD
To determine

To explain the reason behind people stuffing themselves in all-you-can-eat buffet with the help of utility and demand theories.

Expert Solution & Answer
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Explanation of Solution

Consumer preferences are affected by their experiences, religion, and upbringing.

The theory of consumer behavior examines consumer preferences and the way it influence their economic behavior.

Utility is defined as the ability of a good to satisfy a want or the satisfaction that the consumer receives from the goods they consume.

In utility analysis, there are 2 analysis introduced by two different economists. Both theories assume that preferences are rational and every consumer tries to maximize their satisfaction from consuming goods and services.

The first analysis is Cardinal Utility (Marginal Utility Analysis). This means that a person can add certain values or numbers of utils from consumption of each unit of a good.

Here, utility is measurable in a cardinal sense.

The second one is the Ordinal Utility (Indifference Curve Analysis). This only ranks the utility received from consumption of various amounts of a good or baskets of goods.

The utility is measurable in an ordinal sense.

Ordinal Utility process is used to ranks various consumable bundles, whereas Cardinal Utility provides an actual index or measure of satisfaction.

People stuff themselves at all-you-can-eat buffets because the marginal cost of an additional bite is zero at any level.

From the perspective of utility, the additional utility derived from an additional bite should be zero. Until it becomes zero, people keep consuming the good.

From the perspective of demand, they consume food at buffets till the point where the demand curve intersects the X-axis where quantity is measured. This means that the price is zero and the quantity demanded is maximized.

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