ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
Econ: What is an Indifference Curve? 1 Views
Share It!
Description:
What is an Indifference Curve? An indifference curve is a graphic depiction of a consumer’s assumed baseline indifference between two disparate goods that deliver equivalent customer satisfaction and use. As income rises or other factors are introduced, the indifference curves attempt to chart consumer choice preferences.
Transcript
- 00:00
And finance Allah shmoop what is an indifference curve And
- 00:07
no it doesn't have to do with a lazy pitcher
- 00:10
or an architect You know who just doesn't care about
- 00:12
the building anymore because he's about to get fired It
- 00:15
has to do with how people make consumer decisions like
Full Transcript
- 00:18
what products they buy like what they choose and then
- 00:21
care about and or what they're indifferent to Well the
- 00:23
indifference curves graphs a choice between two products except well
- 00:27
you just don't care what combination of the products you
- 00:30
get You like the choice is equally when combined you
- 00:33
would take a bunch of different combos and not notice
- 00:36
the difference in value to you lungs You have that
- 00:39
combo or bundle The total doesn't really matter to your
- 00:43
indifferent to it right So not satisfied with a simple
- 00:46
shrug emoji economists have decided this kind of indifference requires
- 00:50
mathematical rigor and a graphing calculator hints thie indifference curve
- 00:54
and indifference Curve is a graph It shows the Siri's
- 00:56
of combinations of goods So here we go Example time
- 01:02
once again no one invited you out this Friday night
- 01:05
So you're gonna go to the store and buy snacks
- 01:07
for your lonely Netflix binge Best You're going to go
- 01:11
buy some bags of caramel corn and a bunch of
- 01:13
packages of Twizzlers You graff your choices on an indifference
- 01:16
curve Each point on the curve represents a combination of
- 01:20
the volume of each of these sugary delights that makes
- 01:23
you equally happy Well the X axis represents an amount
- 01:26
of caramel corn The Y axis represents an amount of
- 01:29
Twizzlers The curve consists of all the possible combos of
- 01:32
two goods that you find equally app healing It's the
- 01:35
line of Well I don't care You have no preference
- 01:38
about the points on that line All the same Completely
- 01:41
indifferent So three bags of caramel corn and two packs
- 01:44
of Twizzlers mean the same to you as two bags
- 01:47
of caramel corn and four packs of Twizzlers your indifferent
- 01:50
or one bag of caramel corn and six packs of
- 01:52
Twizzlers You're indifferent Or maybe you'll just get eight packs
- 01:56
of Twizzlers and skip the caramel corn altogether You'll get
- 01:59
none of it You're indifferent All of these packages mean
- 02:02
the same to you Same value Same You know food
- 02:05
is love and happiness kind of vibe Pull out some
- 02:08
graphing paper while you're standing in the aisle of the
- 02:10
convenience store Ignore the strange looks you get Yes we
- 02:12
do that all the time Grafting indifference Curve on the
- 02:15
curve Measures utility the amount of value you get out
- 02:18
of the combo twizzlers and caramel corn A point above
- 02:20
the curve is more utility So five bags of caramel
- 02:23
corn and seven packages of Twizzlers Well much better You
- 02:26
Khun Binge all night and into tomorrow but that's off
- 02:29
of that indifference curve A point below the curve is
- 02:32
less utility or less value to you One bag of
- 02:35
caramel corn in one bag of Twizzlers Yeah not enough
- 02:38
to get you through a single episode of House hunters
- 02:40
much less utility or value They're not enough for the
- 02:43
amount of Netflix you'll be binging upon but everything along
- 02:46
the curve provides the adequate utility for what you're trying
- 02:48
to do Enough food to get you through your sad
- 02:51
Friday night of Netflix ng all the points on the
- 02:54
curve providing the same amount of utility or value so
- 02:57
How do you decide What combo Tobi Well if all
- 03:00
the combinations are the same to you how do you
- 03:02
choose which valuer Which combo value to go with And
- 03:05
why are we doing this all again anyway Why graff
- 03:08
your indifference Well the best way to use an indifference
- 03:10
curve is to combine it with a budget constraint line
- 03:14
A budget constraint represents the combinations of the two products
- 03:17
for which you have enough money to buy Set another
- 03:20
way Graphing A budget constraint between two items shows all
- 03:23
the possible combinations that you can afford But once you
- 03:26
get to the store you see what a package of
- 03:28
caramel corn is A three dollars fifty cents There all
- 03:31
the package Twizzlers is on sale for a buck You've
- 03:33
got ten dollars in your pocket so check the points
- 03:36
on your indifference Curve Three bags of caramel corn and
- 03:39
two packs of Twizzlers would cost you twelve fifty Yeah
- 03:41
you don't have that's more than your budget Two packs
- 03:43
a caramel corn in four bags of Twizzlers When that
- 03:46
costs eleven dollars it's a buck too much but one
- 03:49
bag Caramel corn and six packs of Twizzlers Well that's
- 03:51
nine fifty It's under your ten dollars budget and I
- 03:54
guess that's what you'll buy Well on a graph you
- 03:56
figure out the indifference curve all combinations that bring you
- 03:59
equal value All these things are all equal to you
- 04:02
in value And then you figure out your budget constraint
- 04:05
curve all the combinations that you can afford to buy
- 04:08
Well the point where the budget constraint line or restraint
- 04:11
line meets the indifference Curve Boom That's the sweet spot
- 04:14
That combo is the one to buy right here Now
- 04:18
you just have to pick what you want to watch
- 04:20
Another indifference curve sets in as you scroll endlessly through
- 04:23
York Netflix options there Yeah you've got a rough life 00:04:26.423 --> [endTime] there Well you could just chill Yeah
Up Next
GED Social Studies 1.1 Civics and Government
Related Videos
What is bankruptcy? Deadbeats who can't pay their bills declare bankruptcy. Either they borrowed too much money, or the business fell apart. They t...
What's a dividend? At will, the board of directors can pay a dividend on common stock. Usually, that payout is some percentage less than 100 of ear...
How are risk and reward related? Take more risk, expect more reward. A lottery ticket might be worth a billion dollars, but if the odds are one in...