Explanation
The Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility was given by Alfred Marshall. According to the theory, the marginal utility of a consumer goes on falling as he/she consumes more and more of a product.
Marginal utility is the additional satisfaction a consumer gains from consuming one more unit of a good or service.
The assumptions of this Marshallian approach of consumer behaviour are:
1. Marginal utility of money is constant.
2. Utility is cardinally measurable which means that the utility or satisfaction of a consumer can be measured in terms of cardinal numbers.
3. The consumer is a rational human being.
If the commodity under consideration has several uses, then its demand will be elastic. When price of such a commodity increases, then it is generally put to only more urgent uses and, as a result, its demand falls. When the prices fall, then it is used for satisfying even less urgent needs and demand rises. For example, electricity is a multiple-use commodity. Fall in its price will result in substantial increase in its demand, particularly in those uses (like AC, Heat convector, etc.), where it was not employed formerly due to its high price. On the other hand, a commodity with no or few alternative uses has less elastic demand. Hence, correct answer is option A.
The law of demand defines that there is an inverse relation between the price of a commodity and quantity demanded of the commodity. So when price increases, the quantity demanded decreases and vice-versa.
(1) The consumer acts rationally so as to maximise satisfaction.(2) There are two goods X and Y.(3) The consumer possesses complete information about the prices of the goods in the market.(4) The prices of the two goods are given.(5) The consumer’s tastes, habits and income remain the same throughout the analysis.(6) He prefers more of X to less of У or more of Y to less of X.(7) An indifference curve is negatively inclined sloping downward.
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