One other type of information is needed to complete the analysis of consumer choice: the prices of X and Y and the amount the consumer has available to spend. In what follows, it will be assumed that the consumer spends all his money on the available commodities (savings bonds being among the commodities). If P_X and P_Y are the prices of commodities X and Y, respectively, and M represents the amount of money available for spending, the condition that all of the money is spent yields the equationor, solving for Y in terms of X,

(2) This is obviously the equation of a straight line with slope and with y-intercept .

The line, called the budget line, or price line, represents all the combinations of X and Y that the consumer can afford to buy with income M at the given prices.

Open full sized image

Figure 4: Indifference curves and a price line (see text).

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Figure 4 combines this price line and the indifference curves, permitting direct analysis of the consumer purchase decision. Line PP′ is the price line corresponding to equation (2) above. Any point R on that line represents a combination of X and Y that a given consumer can afford to purchase; however, R is not an optimal choice. This can be seen by comparing R with S on the same price line. Since S lies on a higher indifference curve than R, the former is the preferred position, and, since S costs no more than R (they are on the same price line, so each costs M dollars), S gives the consumer more for his money. It is at T, however, the point of tangency between the price line and an indifference curve, that the consumer reaches his highest indifference curve; this is, therefore, the optimal point for him, given his pattern of tastes as shown by the shapes of his indifference curves. This is the solution of the choice problem—it explains, in principle, the consumer’s purchase decision on the basis of his given preferences, with no assumptions as to degrees of measurable utility.

The tangency at the solution point has a significant interpretation. It was noted above that the slope of the indifference curve is the ratio of the marginal utilities of the two commodities. It follows that, at the optimal point T, a dollar of expenditure must offer the same utility whether spent on X or on Y. If this is not so—as at point R in Figure 4, where the consumer gets more for his money by spending a dollar on Y rather than on X—it will pay him to reallocate his expenditures between the two commodities accordingly, moving toward S from R.

Open full sized image

Figure 5: (A) Positive and (B) negative income–consumption curves (see text).

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

The diagram becomes more illuminating when one investigates how the consumer’s decision is affected by a change in his income or in the price of a commodity. Equation (2) indicates that a change in income, M, does not affect the slope of the price line, only its intercept. Thus, as the person’s income increases, the price line undergoes a sequence of parallel shifts (Figure 5). For each such line there will be a point of tangency, T, with an indifference curve, showing the consumer’s optimal bundle of purchases with the corresponding income. The locus of these points (T₁, T₂, T₃ . . .) may be called the income–consumption curve; it shows how the consumer’s purchases vary with his income. Normally the curve will have a positive slope, as EE′ does in Figure 5A, meaning that as a person grows wealthier he will buy more of each commodity. But the slope can be negative for some stretches (GG′ in Figure 5B). In that case, X is said to be an inferior good of which the consumer buys less as his income rises.

Open full sized image

Figure 6: Price–consumption curve (see text).

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

The diagram can also be used to show what happens as the price of X varies. From equation (2) it can be seen that the Y-intercept is not affected by an increase in the price of X but that the slope of the price line grows. Thus, as P_X rises, the price line shifts from PP′ to PR′ in Figure 6. This means that, as P_X rises, M dollars will buy as much of good Y as before (the position of point P at which all M dollars are spent on commodity Y does not change), but that M dollars will now buy less of good X, so that the position of point P′ must move toward the left. Once again, by following the points of tangency between indifference curves and the price lines for various values of P_X, one contains a locus UU′, τηε price–consumption curve, showing how the consumer’s purchases vary with P_X.

Open full sized image

Figure 7: Income effect and substitution effect (see text).

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

It is useful to divide the effects of the price change conceptually into two parts. An increase in the price of X obviously affects the relative cost of X and Y. But it also decreases the consumer’s overall purchasing power. The effect on purchases of this reduction of purchasing power is called the income effect of the price change. Its effect via the relative price change is called the substitution effect. The division can be carried out graphically as follows: let the price of X increase so that the price line in Figure 7 moves from PP′ to PR′, and assume an imaginary intermediate price line, LL′, with the slope of PR′ but tangent to the indifference curve that was attained with the old price line PP′. The imaginary price line has the following properties: (1) it involves the same real income as PP′ (tangency points T and S are the same indifference curve), and (2) it involves the same relative prices as the new price line since their slopes are the same. The rise in price has, in the figure, caused the demand for X to fall from C to A (the quantities of X corresponding to tangency points T and U). It has been possible to divide the total effect, CA, into two parts, the income effect, BA, and the substitution effect, CB. This breakdown is important, because a number of interesting and important theorems can be proved about the substitution effect. Two of these theorems will illustrate the point.

Under the normal assumptions of demand theory it can be proved that a rise in the price of X must, via the substitution effect, work to reduce the demand for X; the second theorem states the surprising result that, considering only substitution effects, a dollar rise in the price of X must change the demand for Y by precisely the same amount as a dollar rise in the price of Y changes the demand for X. Similar relationships have been shown to hold when there are more than two commodities involved.

Two good introductory discussions of the nature of value theory and its application to the economy as a whole are Robert Dorfman, The Price System (1964), and Prices and Markets, 3rd ed. (1978). The classic work on the history of economic theory, particularly of value theory, is Joseph Schumpeter, History of Economic Analysis, ed. by Elizabeth Boody Schumpeter (1954, reissued 1986). An excellent brief discussion can be found in George J. Stigler, Essays in the History of Economics (1965, reprinted 1987), especially essays 5, 6, and 12. Three rather advanced works on modern value theory are J.R. Hicks, Value and Capital, 2nd ed. (1950, reissued 1974); Paul A. Samuelson, Foundations of Economic Analysis, enlarged ed. (1983); and J. Hüsler and R.-D. Reiss (eds.), Extreme Value Theory (1989), containing conference proceedings. Marc R. Tool, Essays in Social Value Theory: A Neo-Institutionalist Contribution (1986), provides very insightful views.

Seminal works in the history of value theory include David Ricardo, On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817, reissued 1981); F.Y. Edgeworth, Mathematical Psychics (1881, reprinted 1967); Vilfredo Pareto, Cours d’économie politique, 2 vol. (1896–97); J.R. Hicks and R.D.G. Allen, “A Reconsideration of the Theory of Value,” Economica, New Series, 2 parts, 1:52–76,196–219 (1934); R.G.D. Allen, “Professor Slutsky’s Theory of Consumers’ Choice,” The Review of Economic Studies, 3:120–129 (1936); Carl Menger, Principles of Economics (1950, reissued 1981; originally published in German, 1871); Léon Walras, Elements of Pure Economics; or, The Theory of Social Wealth (1954, reprinted 1984; originally published in French, 1874); W. Stanley Jevons, The Theory of Political Economy, 5th ed. (1957); Alfred Marshall, Principles of Economics, 9th ed., 2 vol. (1961), also discussing price; John Weeks, Capital and Exploitation (1981), a study of Marx’s labour theory of value; Hermann Heinrich Gossen, The Laws of Human Relations and the Rules of Human Action Derived Therefrom (1983; originally published in German, 1854); and K.K. Valtukh, Marx’s Theory of Commodity and Surplus-Value: Formalised Exposition, trans. from Russian (1987). Two good discussions of the more recently popular theories of utility are David M. Kreps, Notes on the Theory of Choice (1988); and Bill Gerrard (ed.), The Economics of Rationality (1993).

Among the best modern textbooks in microeconomics are David D. Friedman, Price Theory, 2nd ed. (1990), an introductory text which includes nonconventional applications of price theory; David M. Kreps, A Course in Microeconomic Theory (1990), for intermediate and advanced readership; and Hal R. Varian, Microeconomic Analysis, 3rd ed. (1992), and Intermediate Microeconomics, 3rd ed. (1993), both at an advanced level.