1.2 How Markets Work Flashcards
What do consumers aim to maximise when making economic decisions?
Their utility
What do firms aim to maximise when making economic decisions?
Their profits
Consumer utility
Total satisfaction received from consuming a good or service
Demand
Quantity of a good or service that consumers are willing and able to buy at a given price during a given period of time
What will cause changes ALONG a demand curve?
Changes in price
Factors that shift the demand curve
PIRATES P - population. I - Income. R - Related goods A - Advertising T - Tastes E - Expectations S - Seasons
3 types of demand
Derived, Composite and Joint.
What is joint demand?
When goods are bought together.
What is derived demand?
When demand for one good is linked to the demand for another. For example, demand for bricks derived from the demand of house building.
What is composite demand?
When the demanded good has more than one use.
What is the demand curve like and what it does it show?
Downward sloping showing the inverse relationship between price and quantity demanded.
Law of diminishing marginal utility
Per extra unit of the good consumed, the benefit derived from its consumption falls.
PED
The responsiveness of a change in demand to a change in price. PED = Percentage change in QD/Percentage change in price.
Numerical value for a price elastic good
PED is greater than 1.
Numerical value for a price inelastic good
PED is less than 1.
Numerical value for a unitary elastic good
PED is 1.
What happens to demand when price is changed for as perfectly inelastic good
For a perfectly inelastic good, when price is changed demand isn’t affected. PED = 0.
Numerical value for a perfectly elastic good
PED is infinity.
Description of price elastic
A good that is very responsive to a change in its price. Change in price leads to an even bigger change in its demand.