Question

Toby’s current marginal utility from consuming peanuts is 100 utils per ounce and his marginal utility from consuming cashews is 200 utils per ounce. If peanuts cost 10 cents per ounce and cashews cost 25 cents per ounce, is Toby maximizing his total utility from the kinds of nuts? If so, explain how you know. If not, how should he rearrange his spending?

Answer 1

Answer:

a. Toby is not maximizing his utility

b. Toby should reduce his spending on cashew and increase his spending on peanuts.

Explanation:

a. Is Toby maximizing his total utility from the kinds of nuts? If so, explain how you know.

Toby will maximize his utility when we have:

MUp/Pp = MUc/Pc

Where;

MUp/Pp = Marginal utility of peanut divided by price of peanut = 100/10 = 10

MUc/Pc = Marginal utility of cashew divided by price of cash = 200/25 = 8

From the above, Toby is not maximizing his utility. I am able to know this because MUp/Pp > MUc/Pc (i.e. 10 > 8). An Toby will only maximize his utility when MUp/Pp = MUc/Pc.

b. If not, how should he rearrange his spending?

Since MUp/Pp > MUc/Pc (i.e. 10 > 8), Toby should reduce his spending on cashew in order to increase MUc and increase his spending on peanuts reduce MUp until MUp/Pp = MUc/Pc.