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Lolita, an intelligent and charming Holstein cow, consumes only two goods,
cow feed (made of ground corn and oats) and hay. Her preferences are represented
by the utility function U(x, y) = x?x2/2+y, where x is her consumption
of cow feed and y is her consumption of hay.

Lolita has been instructed in the mysteries of budgets and optimization
and always maximizes her utility subject to her budget constraint. Lolita
has an income of $m that she is allowed to spend as she wishes on cow
feed and hay. The price of hay is always $1, and the price of cow feed will
be denoted by p, where 0 < p ? 1.

(a) Write Lolita's inverse demand function for cow feed.

(b) If the price of cow feed is p and her income is m, how much hay does
Lolita choose?

(c) Plug these numbers into her utility function to find out the utility level
that she enjoys at this price and this income.

(d) Suppose that Lolita's daily income is $3 and that the price of feed is
$.50. What bundle does she buy? What bundle would she buy if the price of
cow feed rose to $1?

2. F. Flintstone has quasi-linear preferences and his inverse demand
function for Brontosaurus Burgers is P(b) = 30 ? 2b. Mr. Flintstone is
currently consuming 10 burgers at a price of 10 dollars.

(a) How much money would he be willing to pay to have this amount
rather than no burgers at all? What is his level of (net)
consumer's surplus?

(b) The town of Bedrock, the only supplier of Brontosaurus Burgers,
decides to raise the price from $10 a burger to $14 a burger. What
is Mr. Flintstone's change in consumer's surplus?

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Solution Summary

Lolita, an intelligent and charming Holstein cow, consumes only two goods,
cow feed (made of ground corn and oats) and hay. Her preferences are represented
by the utility function U(x, y) = x?x2/2+y, where x is her consumption
of cow feed and y is her consumption of hay.

Lolita has been instructed in the mysteries of budgets and optimization
and always maximizes her utility subject to her budget constraint. Lolita
has an income of $m that she is allowed to spend as she wishes on cow
feed and hay. The price of hay is always $1, and the price of cow feed will
be denoted by p, where 0 < p ? 1.

(a) Write Lolita's inverse demand function for cow feed.

(b) If the price of cow feed is p and her income is m, how much hay does
Lolita choose?

(c) Plug these numbers into her utility function to find out the utility level
that she enjoys at this price and this income.

(d) Suppose that Lolita's daily income is $3 and that the price of feed is
$.50. What bundle does she buy? What bundle would she buy if the price of
cow feed rose to $1?

2. F. Flintstone has quasi-linear preferences and his inverse demand
function for Brontosaurus Burgers is P(b) = 30 ? 2b. Mr. Flintstone is
currently consuming 10 burgers at a price of 10 dollars.

(a) How much money would he be willing to pay to have this amount
rather than no burgers at all? What is his level of (net)
consumer's surplus?

(b) The town of Bedrock, the only supplier of Brontosaurus Burgers,
decides to raise the price from $10 a burger to $14 a burger. What
is Mr. Flintstone's change in consumer's surplus?

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1. Lolita, an intelligent and charming Holstein cow, consumes only two goods,
cow feed (made of ground corn and oats) and hay. Her preferences are represented
by the utility function U(x, y) = x−x2/2+y, where x is her consumption
of cow feed and y is her consumption of hay.

Lolita has been instructed in the mysteries of budgets and optimization
and always maximizes her utility subject to her budget constraint. Lolita
has an income of $m that she is allowed to spend as she wishes on cow
feed and hay. The price of hay is always $1, and ...

Purchase this Solution


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