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Microeconomics: Demand

Demand: Consumers' willingness and ability to buy a good or service at the various prices that exist in a market in a given time

  • Law of demand: consumers tend to buy higher quantities at lower prices than they do at higher prices.
  • When the price of a good change, it is changing relative to the price of other goods. Consumers tend to substitute away from more expensive goods for cheaper goods.
  • Diminishing utility: each additional unit of a good or service that a person consumes gives them less benefit (or utility ) than the previous unit. The only way a person will consume more of a good is if the marginal price is lower.
Demand can be displayed as a downward sloping curve which illustrates the law of demand.



Reference:  Mayer,David. AP Microeconomics Crash Course. Research & Education Association (2014). p 49-50.

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