Diminishing marginal utility and the teaching of economics: A note

Tamara Todorova ()

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: This paper discusses how utility can be taught in undergraduate courses in microeconomics so that to illustrate total and marginal utility, the law of diminishing marginal utility, and consumer rationality. Diminishing marginal utility is essential in describing rational consumer behavior, overconsumption, and oversaturation to students of economics. We demonstrate a quadratic and a logarithmic total utility with the subsequent forms and shapes of marginal utility. From what it seems there is no contradiction between diminishing marginal utility in the univariate context of consuming one good and the indifference curve as the multivariate case of two goods consumed.

Keywords: total utility; marginal utility; indifference curve (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A2 A22 B41 D11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-upt
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