Bridget has a limited income and consumes only wine and cheese; her current consumption choice is four bottles of wine and 10 pounds of cheese. The price of wine is $10 per bottle, and the price of cheese is $4 per pound. The last bottle of wine added 50 units to Bridget’s utility, while the last pound of cheese added 40 units.
- Is Bridget making the utility-maximizing choice? Why or why not?
- If not, what should she do instead? Why?
3- In an article about the financial problems of USA Today, Newsweek reported that the paper was losing about $20 million a year. A Wall Street analyst said that the paper should raise its price from 50 cents to 75 cents, which he estimated would bring in an additional $65 million a year. The paper’s publisher rejected the idea, saying that circulation could drop sharply after a price increase; citing The Wall Street Journal’s experience after it increased its price to 75 cents. What implicit assumptions are the publisher and the analyst making about price elasticity?
