Consumer Choice / Behavioral Economics

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the theory of consumer behavior and the way in which scarcity impinges upon the individual consumer and hence deals with the way in which such an individual makes choices. The theory presents us with an important instance of how other social sciences, such as sociology and social psychology which deal, in part, with the way in which people organize themselves into household and other units, could complement economics.

From the Paper:

"The objects of the consumer's choice are goods and services. In the most general case we may consider patterns of consumption at each particular moment in time and over time (Bailey, 1994). To keep things simple we will for now confine ourselves to the choice facing an individual at a particular time, ignoring for the moment the problem of allocating consumption over time. We will also simplify the world by assuming that it contains only two goods, X and Y. This abstraction from a world with many goods to one with two is not quite so restrictive as might appear at first sight, for it is always possible to think of X as being one particular good and Y as being a composite bundle of all other goods."

More papers on Consumer Choice / Behavioral Economics:

• Essay # 111283 : "Household Demand"
• Term Paper # 111524 : "Behavioral Economics"
• Essay # 36151 : "Consumer Choice"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: