Teoría del Consumidor. Conceptos Básicos
Summary
TLDRLa microeconomía analiza agentes económicos individuales, incluyendo teoría del consumidor, producción y distribución. En la teoría del consumidor, las preferencias son completas, transitivas y se comportan racionalmente, mostrando 'más es mejor'. Las curvas de indiferencia representan combinaciones de bienes que satisfacen al consumidor de manera igual, con una pendiente negativa que indica la tasa marginal de sustitución (RMS). La RMS es la cantidad máxima que un consumidor está dispuesto a renunciar de un bien para obtener más de otro. Los bienes sustitutos tienen una RMS constante, mientras que los bienes complementarios tienen una RMS infinita o cero, lo que se refleja en las formas de las curvas de indiferencia.
Takeaways
- 📊 Microeconomía analiza agentes económicos individualmente, incluyendo teoría del consumidor, producción y distribución.
- 🍎 En la teoría del consumidor, las preferencias son cómo un consumidor ordena diferentes cestas de bienes según sus gustos.
- 🔄 Las preferencias del consumidor pueden ser estrictas, débiles o indiferentes entre dos cestas de bienes.
- 🧐 Las preferencias deben cumplir con propiedades de completitud, transitividad y mayor cantidad mejor para ser consideradas racionales.
- 📉 Las curvas de indiferencia muestran todas las combinaciones de cestas que dan al consumidor el mismo nivel de satisfacción.
- ⤵️ Las curvas de indiferencia tienen una pendiente negativa, reflejando la propiedad de 'mayor cantidad mejor'.
- 🚫 Las curvas de indiferencia no deben intersectarse para no violar las preferencias racionales.
- 🔄 La tasa marginal de sustitución (RMS) es la cantidad máxima que un consumidor está dispuesto a renunciar para obtener una unidad adicional de otro bien.
- 📉 La RMS es la pendiente de la curva de indiferencia y disminuye a medida que el consumidor tiene más de un bien y menos de otro.
- 🍊 Los bienes sustituibles son aquellos cuya demanda aumenta con el aumento del precio de otro, mostrando una RMS constante.
- 🚗 Los bienes complementarios son aquellos cuya demanda disminuye con el aumento del precio de otro, con una RMS infinita o cero.
Q & A
¿Qué área del ámbito económico se encarga de analizar a los agentes individualmente?
-Microeconomía es el área dentro de la economía que se encarga de analizar a los agentes individualmente.
¿Cuáles son las teorías que se estudian dentro de la teoría del consumidor en la microeconomía?
-Dentro de la teoría del consumidor, se estudian la ordenación de preferencias, que es el método por el cual un consumidor ordena, según sus gustos, las diferentes cestas que tiene o podría tener disponible.
¿Cómo se define una cesta de consumo en términos de bienes?
-Una cesta de consumo se define por el número de peras en un lado y por el número de manzanas en el otro.
¿Qué tipos de preferencias puede tener un consumidor entre dos bienes?
-Las preferencias de un consumidor pueden ser estrictas, débiles o indiferentes entre dos cestas.
¿Qué propiedades deben cumplir las preferencias de un consumidor para ser consideradas racionales según la teoría económica?
-Las preferencias de un consumidor deben ser completas, transitivas y cumplir con la propiedad de que 'más es mejor'.
¿Qué son las curvas de indiferencia y cómo se relacionan con las preferencias del consumidor?
-Las curvas de indiferencia son gráficos que informan de todas las combinaciones de cestas que dan al consumidor el mismo nivel de satisfacción, es decir, el consumidor es indiferente entre todas las cestas representadas por una curva de indiferencia.
¿Por qué las curvas de indiferencia siempre tienen una pendiente negativa?
-Las curvas de indiferencia siempre tienen una pendiente negativa porque si fuera positiva, estaría diciendo que un consumidor es indiferente entre tener una mayor cantidad de los dos bienes que una menor cantidad, lo que no cumpliría con la propiedad de 'más es mejor'.
¿Qué es la tasa marginal de sustitución (RMS) y cómo se relaciona con las curvas de indiferencia?
-La tasa marginal de sustitución (RMS) es la cantidad máxima que un consumidor está dispuesto a renunciar para obtener una unidad adicional de otro bien. Esta tasa es simplemente la pendiente de una curva de indiferencia.
¿Cómo cambian las preferencias de un consumidor cuando posee más de un bien y menos de otro?
-Cuando un consumidor posee más y más de un bien y menos de otro, estará cada vez más reacio a cambiar el bien que tiene menos por obtener una unidad adicional del otro, lo que hace que la RMS disminuya a medida que se desplaza por la curva de indiferencia.
¿Qué son los bienes sustitutos y cómo se representan en las curvas de indiferencia?
-Los bienes sustitutos son aquellos cuya demanda aumenta cuando aumenta el precio de uno de ellos. En las curvas de indiferencia, estos bienes se representan con líneas rectas, por lo que la RMS es siempre constante.
¿Qué son los bienes complementarios y cómo se diferencian en las curvas de indiferencia de los bienes sustitutos?
-Los bienes complementarios son aquellos cuya demanda disminuye cuando aumenta el precio de uno de ellos. En las curvas de indiferencia, estos bienes se representan con curvas en forma de ángulo recto, y la RMS es infinita o cero.
Outlines
📊 Teoría del Consumidor en Microeconomía
El primer párrafo introduce la microeconomía como una rama de la economía que analiza a los agentes individualmente, abarcando la teoría del consumidor, producción y distribución. Se explica cómo los consumidores ordenan sus preferencias según sus gustos, eligiendo entre diferentes cestas de bienes, como peras y manzanas. Se discuten diferentes tipos de preferencias, como estrictas, débiles e indiferentes, y se enfatiza que estas deben cumplir con propiedades de completitud, transitividad y la disposición a más de un bien como signo de racionalidad. Además, se introducen las curvas de indiferencia, que representan todas las combinaciones de cestas que satisfacen al consumidor de la misma manera, y se explican sus propiedades, como la pendiente negativa y la no intersección de las curvas para mantener la racionalidad de las preferencias. Finalmente, se menciona la tasa marginal de sustitución (RMS) como la cantidad máxima que un consumidor está dispuesto a renunciar de un bien para obtener una unidad adicional de otro, relacionándola con la pendiente de las curvas de indiferencia.
🔍 Análisis de la Tasa Marginal de Sustitución (RMS) y Bienes Complementarios e Intercambiables
El segundo párrafo profundiza en la relación entre la RMS y las curvas de indiferencia, ilustrando con un ejemplo práctico cómo se calcula y cómo varía a medida que el consumidor cambia su cesta de bienes. Se explica que la RMS es la pendiente de la curva de indiferencia y cómo disminuye a medida que el consumidor posee más de un bien, mostrando su reluctancia a cambiarlo por otro. Además, se contrastan los bienes sustituibles, cuyas curvas de indiferencia son líneas rectas y por tanto tienen una RMS constante, con los bienes complementarios, cuyas curvas de indiferencia tienen forma de ángulo recto y una RMS infinita o cero. Se ejemplifica con la relación entre un coche y sus ruedas, demostrando cómo la demanda de uno afecta a la demanda del otro. Se concluye con la importancia de entender la RMS y la forma de las curvas de indiferencia para analizar la demanda y la utilidad de los bienes.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Microeconomía
💡Teoría del consumidor
💡Cesta de consumo
💡Preferencias
💡Completitud
💡Transitividad
💡Indiferencia
💡Curvas de indiferencia
💡Tasa marginal de sustitución (TMS)
💡Bienes complementarios
💡Bienes sustitutos
Highlights
Microeconomics focuses on analyzing individual economic agents.
Consumer theory involves ordering preferences based on tastes.
A consumption basket is defined by quantities of different goods.
Consumers can have strict, weak, or indifferent preferences.
Rational behavior in consumer theory implies consistent preferences.
Preferences must be complete, allowing comparison of all available options.
Transitivity is required for rational preference orders.
The principle 'more is better' applies to consumer preferences.
Indifference curves graphically represent consumer satisfaction levels.
A consumer is indifferent among baskets on the same indifference curve.
Indifference curves should not intersect to maintain rationality.
The marginal rate of substitution (MRS) measures the trade-off between goods.
The MRS is the slope of an indifference curve and indicates preference intensity.
Substitute goods have straight indifference curves with constant MRS.
Complementary goods have indifference curves with right angles and infinite or zero MRS.
The shape of indifference curves reflects the relationship between goods.
Transcripts
Microeconomics is the area within the economy that is responsible for analyzing the agents
individually. In it we find
the theory of the consumer, the theory of production and the theory of distribution.
Within the consumer theory, we find the ordering of preferences, which is the
method by which a consumer orders, according to their tastes, the different baskets that they have or
may have available. Suppose we have two goods, which are pears and apples. Then, a consumption basket
would be given by the number of pears on the one hand, and by the number of apples on the
other. A consumer, according to his preferences, can order them as he wants. For example, a consumer
may have two baskets A and B, and prefer basket B over basket A since it is more useful to him.
The preference that a consumer can have between two goods can be of several types.
It can be strict, which means that one basket is desired more than the other. Also, it can
be weak, which means that one basket is loved more, or at least the same as another; and
it can also be indifferent between two baskets, which means that it does not matter which one to have. However
, it should be noted that according to consumer theory in particular, and economic theory
in general, individuals behave rationally and therefore these preferences
have to comply with a series of properties that make them consistent with rationality .
The first of these properties is that the preferences must be complete. This means
that the consumer has the ability to compare and order all the baskets that
are available to him. That is, if you have a basket A and another basket B, you may prefer A to B,
B to A, or you can remain indifferent between the two, regardless of the cost of both baskets.
Furthermore, preference orders have to be transitive. What this means is
that if you prefer a Ferrari to a Mercedes, and a Mercedes to a Jaguar, then a Ferrari
should be preferred to a Jaguar. In other words, it would be a bit inconsistent if
a Jaguar were to be preferred to a Ferrari. Another property is that the more you have the better. Obviously,
when getting goods as a good thing, consumers will always prefer to have more of a
good than less. Of course, it is better to have 10 Iphones, than 4, don't you think? And these are the three
properties that a consumer's preferences must meet to be considered rational.
Consumer preferences can be shown graphically by indifference
curves . These curves inform us of all the combinations of baskets that give a
consumer the same level of satisfaction. This means that a consumer is indifferent
among all the baskets represented by an indifference curve. For example,
this consumer whose indifference curve is represented in this graph
is indifferent between having 5 apples and 2 pears or 4 apples and 4 pears, since both baskets are
on the same indifference curve. However, a consumer not only has one indifference curve
, but has infinite indifference curves that represent the bundles
of goods in which he is indifferent. All these curves are represented by an
indifference curve map , which is the graph that you can see right now. In this map of difference
curves you can see three different curves. It must be said that each of these
difference curves reports a different level of satisfaction. That is, curve C3 has a
higher level of satisfaction than curve C1 and C2, so a consumer will always prefer to
be on curve C3. As can be seen, the indifference curves always have a negative slope,
since if it were positive we would be saying that a consumer is indifferent between having a
greater number of the two goods than a smaller number, so we would not comply with the property of how much
more better, seen in the preferences video. In addition, continuing with the properties seen in this
video, it must be taken into account that the indifference curves should never be cut. To understand
this, suppose we have the following two indifference curves that intersect. As I have
said before, indifference curves represent baskets of preferences about
which an individual is indifferent. So a consumer will feel indifferent between
baskets A and B because they are on the same curve. However, you will also feel indifferent between
the baskets A and C because they are also on the same curve. Therefore, according to the
transitivity property , the consumer will feel indifferent between ago these B and C, but this is
irrational since basket B has more apples and pears than basket C and as a consumer he will always
prefer more than less, basket B will always be more preferable than C. Therefore, never cut
two indifference curves so as not to violate the assumptions of rational preferences.
The marginal rate of substitution (RMS) is the maximum amount for which a consumer
is willing to give up in order to get an additional unit of another good. Suppose we
have two goods, which are walnuts and peanuts. So in this case, the RMS will be how many nuts
we are willing to give up for an additional peanut. If the RMS is 2, it means
that we are willing to give up two nuts to get one peanut. This concept is
related to indifference curves, since in a certain sense it is with them that
the MSY between two products is analyzed . Let us suppose an example in which we have the following indifference curve
for a consumer. So if the consumer is at point A, which corresponds to
18 nuts and 2 peanuts, and wants to have one more peanut, which would mean moving
to point B, they would have to give up 4 nuts. Therefore, he would be left with 14 walnuts and 3 peanuts.
To calculate the Marginal Substitution Ratio, in this case the variation of nuts would have to be put in the numerator of
a fraction, that is, -4; and in the denominator we should put the variation of peanuts, which has been +1.
To make the RMS a positive number, put a negative sign in front of it. Therefore, in this case the
MSY is 4, which means that to obtain one more unit of peanuts the consumer has
had to give up 4 nuts. You have to see that the RMS is just the slope of an
indifference curve . This slope, as can be seen, is less and less negative as the consumer
has more peanuts. The sense of this is that when a consumer has more and more of
one good and less of another, he will be willing to change less of the good that he has less to
obtain one more unit of the other, since his utility by having more from that good it will go down.
And this is why the RMS will be less and less as we descend along the curve.
In this example, the consumer, whose indifference curve is represented
in this graph, will be increasingly reluctant to change nuts for peanuts, as
he has more peanuts, so his MSY between both goods will decrease. And
this is why indifference curves are usually represented by a convex curve.
Two goods are substitutes, when the increase in the price of one causes an increase in demand for the
other. In these goods, the indifference curves are a straight line, so the RMS is always
a constant. Suppose we have a consumer who is indifferent between
consuming an orange and a lemon soda, since the utility he receives from consuming one or the other
is the same. Then, the indifference curves of this consumer with respect to these two
goods will be straight lines and his MSY will be 1. However, it must be taken into account that the MSY in
substitute goods does not always have to be equal to 1, although always it has to be constant.
For example, a person may not care having a two-liter bottle, or having two
one-liter bottles, or four 50-centiliter bottles. In these cases, the MSY would be 2 and 4
respectively. On the other hand, we have the complementary goods. Two goods are complementary,
when the rise in the price of one of the goods causes a reduction in demand for the other.
In these cases, the indifference curves are in the shape of a right angle, and the RMS is
infinite or zero. Now we will see why all this. Let's suppose that a car and its wheels are
two complementary goods to each other. The indifference curves would be those that appear in this
graph. For a person to be able to drive a car, they will always need at least four wheels.
Therefore, these two goods are complementary because having one more car is not going to increase
someone's utility if they do not get four more wheels. So, in the case
that there are more quartets of wheels than cars, the RMS will always be 0, since a consumer
will not trade cars to get one more quartet of wheels. In contrast, if there are
more cars than there are wheel quartets, a consumer would be willing to give up all the cars he
owns, even if he does not get any additional wheel quartets. For example, if a consumer has 20 cars,
but only 4 wheels, he would be at point A on curve C1 because he can only drive
one car. Then, the other cars, not being able to drive them, would not bring him any use,
so he would be willing to give up the remaining 19 cars, even if they gave him 0 wheels. Therefore
, when the indifference curve is vertical, the RMS is infinite. Obviously, you could change
18 cars for a quartet of wheels, to be able to drive the cars, but we would already be talking
about another indifference curve, since this would make you move to point B of the curve C2 ago.
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