Utility maximizing

Knowing a person’s budget line and utility, how can we maximize the utility? There are 2 methods.

Using a Spreadsheet

Assuming all income is used,

1. Write out the possible combinations of goods from the specified income.
2. Write out the total utility gained from each number of good.
3. Add the utilities together from both goods
4. Find out which combination of good gives the most total utility.

Choosing the Margin

Recall that we learned about finding the marginal utility last section. We can put it to use this section!

Assuming all income is used, the consumer maximizes their utility between two goods when

$\large \frac{MU_x}{P_x}=\frac{MU_y}{P_y}$

Where:

1. $MU_x$ is the marginal utility of good x.
2. $P_x$ is the marginal utility of good x.
3. $MU_y$ is the marginal utility of good y.
4. $P_y$ is the marginal utility of good y.