Tài liệu tham khảo Tài liệu trung cấp môn Kinh tế vi mô bằng tiếng Anh gồm 41 phần giúp sinh viên khoa kinh tế học tốt môn Kinh tế vi mô. Tài liệu này là phần 6 giới thiệu về " Choice - Sự lựa chọn " | CHAPTER 5 CHOICE In this chapter we will put together the budget set and the theory of preferences in order to examine the optimal choice of consumers. We said earlier that the economic model of consumer choice is that people choose the best bundle they can afford. We can now rephrase this in terms that sound more professional by saying that consumers choose the most preferred bundle from their budget sets. Optimal Choice A typical case is illustrated in Figure . Here we have drawn the budget set and several of the consumer s indifference curves on the same diagram. We want to find the bundle in the budget set that is on the highest indifference curve. Since preferences are well-behaved so that more is preferred to less we can restrict our attention to bundles of goods that lie on the budget line and not worry about those beneath the budget line. Now simply start at the right-hand corner of the budget line and move to the left. As we move along the budget line we note that we are moving to higher and higher indifference curves. We stop when we get to the highest 74 CHOICE Ch. 5 indifference curve that just touches the budget line. In the diagram the bundle of goods that is associated with the highest indifference curve that just touches the budget line is labeled The choice x x is an optimal choice for the consumer. The set of bundles that she prefers to x x the set of bundles above her indifference curve doesn t intersect the bundles she can afford the bundles beneath her budget line. Thus the bundle x X2 is the best bundle that the consumer can afford. Optimal choice. The optimal consumption position is where the indifference curve is tangent to the budget line. Note an important feature of this optimal bundle at this choice the indifference curve is tangent to the budget line. If you .think about it a moment you ll see that this has to be the case if the indifference curve weren t tangent it would cross the budget line and if it crossed the budget line .
