In: Economics
he marginal rate of substitution is the
Group of answer choices
rate at which the consumer increases utility.
tradeoff rate between the two goods under consideration at any particular point.
total utility derived at any point.
absolute value of the indifference curve.
The marginal rate of substitution is defined as the amount of one good that is sacrificed to get more of another good. It is also the absolute slope of the MRS. Based on this lets consider the options -
rate at which the consumer increases utility. - The rate at which consumer increases utility depends on the shape of the indifference curve. For a constant slope, utility change is constant, for concave IC - utility rises at increasing rate while for convex IC - utility rises at decreasing rate. So the rate of change of utility depends on the second order of the IC's slope (which is the MRS). So this is incorrect.
tradeoff rate between the two goods under consideration at any particular point - This matches exactly with our starting definition of MRS. MRS states is the slope of the IC, which is grahically change in y good/change in x. This shows amount of y gain/loss due to x loss/gain. So its shows the trade off between the two goods. Formally its given as MRS = MUx/MUy. Correct option
total utility derived at any point - Incorrect. This is simply the total utility from consuming all goods at a point in time. This does not explain what MRS is.
absolute value of the indifference curve - Incorrect. An absolute value of the indifference curve does not make sense. It has to be absolute value of something (like utility, slope etc) of the IC to make sense. So incorrect. Note that if this option read absolute slope of IC then it would mean the MRS and then would be correct.