3.5 The Phillie Phanatic (PP) always eats his ballpark franks in a special way; he uses a foot-long hot dog together with precisely half a bun, 1 ounce of mustard, and 2 ounces of pickle relish. His utility is a function only of these four items, and any extra amount of a single item without the other constituents is worthless. a. What form does PP's utility function for these four goods have? b. How might we simplify matters by considering PP's utility to be a function of only one good? What is that good? c. Suppose foot-long hot dogs cost $1.00 each, buns cost $0.50 each, mustard costs $0.05 per ounce, and pickle relish costs $0.15 per ounce. How much does the good defined in part (b) cost?

3.5 The Phillie Phanatic (PP) always eats his ballpark franks in a special way; he uses a foot-long hot dog together with precisely half a bun, 1 ounce of mustard, and 2 ounces of pickle relish. His utility is a function only of these four items, and any extra amount of a single item without the other constituents is worthless. a. What form does PP's utility function for these four goods have? b. How might we simplify matters by considering PP's utility to be a function of only one good? What is that good? c. Suppose foot-long hot dogs cost $1.00 each, buns cost $0.50 each, mustard costs $0.05 per ounce, and pickle relish costs $0.15 per ounce. How much does the good defined in part (b) cost?

Principles of Economics 2e

2nd Edition

ISBN:9781947172364

Author:Steven A. Greenlaw; David Shapiro

Publisher:Steven A. Greenlaw; David Shapiro

Chapter6: Consumer Choices

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 1SCQ: Jeremy is deeply in love with Jasmine. Jasmine lives where cell phone coverage is poor, so he can...

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Take Jeremys total utility information in Exercise 6.1, and use the marginal utility approach to confirm the choice of phone minutes and round trips that maximize Jeremys utility.
Jeremy is deeply in love with Jasmine. Jasmine lives where cell phone coverage is poor, so he can either call her on the land-line phone for five cents per minute or he can drive to see her, at a roundâ€”trip cost of 2 in gasoline money. He has a total of 10 per week to spend on staying in touch. To make his preferred choice, Jeremy uses a handy utilimometer that measures his total utility from personal visits and from phone minutes. Using the values in Table 6.6, figure out the points 011 Jeremys consumption choice budget constraint (it may be helpful to do a sketch) and identify his utility-maximizing point.
Would you expect total utility to rise or fall with additional consumption of a good? Why?
Praxilla, who lived in ancient Greece, derives utility from reading poems and from eating cucumbers. Praxilla gets 30 units of marginal utility from her first poem 27 units of marginal utility from her second poem 24 units of marginal utility from her third poem, and so on, with marginal utility declining by three units for each additional poem. Praxilla gets six units of marginal utility for each of her next three cucumbers consumed, five units of marginal utility for each of her next three cucumbers consumed, four units of marginal utility for each of the following three cucumbers consumed, and so on, with marginal utility declining by one for every three cucumber consumed. A poem costs three bronze coins hut a cucumber costs only one bronze coin. Praxilla has 18 bronze coins. Sketch Praxillas budget set between poems and cucumbers, placing poems on the vertical axis and cucumbers on the horizontal axis. Start off with the choice of zero poems and 18 cucumbers, and calculate the changes in marginal utility of moving along the budget line to the next choice of one poem and 15 cucumbers. Using this step-by-step process based on marginal utility, create a table and identify Praxillas utilityâ€”maximizing choice. Compare the marginal utility of the two goods and the relative prices at the optimal choice to see if the expected relationship holds. Hint: Label the table columns: 1) Choice, 2} Marginal Gain from More Poems, 3) Marginal Loss from Fewer Cucumbers, 4) Overall Gain or Loss, 5) Is the previous choice Optimal? Label the table rows: 1) 0 Poems and 18 Cucumbers, 2) 1 Poem and 15 cucumbers, 3) 2 Poems and 12 cucumbers, 4) 3 Poems and 9 Cucumbers, 5) 4 Poems and 6 cucumbers 6) 5 Poems and 3 Cucumbers, 7) 6 Poems and 0 Cucumbers.