Question

Robert treats coffee and creamer as perfect complements and has very specific requirements for the ratio of creamer to coffee. He will drink coffee only if he has exactly 5.00 packets of creamer for every cup of coffee. Coffee is priced at $3.00 per cup and creamer at $0.25 per packet. In the questions below, give your answers to two decimal places.
a. Suppose that Robert has $39.00 to spend on coffee and creamer. His optimal consumption bundle contains _______cups of coffee and _________
b. Now, suppose that the price of creamer rises to $0.50 per packet. What is the substitution effect of this price change?

Answer 1

Answer:

a. Robert's optimal consumption bundle contains 9.18 cups of coffee and 45.88 packets of creamer.

b. Zero packets of creamer is the substitution effect.

Explanation:

a. Suppose that Robert has $39.00 to spend on coffee and creamer. His optimal consumption bundle contains _______cups of coffee and _________

The consumption ratio can be stated as follows:

5 Creamer = 1 cup of coffee

Budget line has an equation can also be given as follows:

B = (Pm * Qm) + (Pf * Qf) ...................... (1)

Where;

B = Budget = The amount Robert has to spend on coffee and creamer = $39.00

Pm = Price of creamer = $0.25

Qm = Quantity of creamer = ?

Pf = Price of coffee = $3.00

Qf = Quantity of coffee = ?

39 = (0.25 * Qm) + (3 * Qf)

39 = 0.25Qm + 3Qf

Since "5 Creamer = 1 cup of coffee". This also implies thal 1 creamer = 1 / 5 cup of coffee. Therefore, we have;

39 = 0.25Qm + (3 * 1/5 * Qm)

39 = 0.25Qm + (3/5)Qm

39 = 0.25Qm + 0.60Qm

39 = 0.85Qm

Qm = 39 / 0.85

Qm = 45.88

Qf = 45 / 5 = 9.18

Therefore, Robert's optimal consumption bundle contains 9.18 cups of coffee and 45.88 packets of creamer.

b. Now, suppose that the price of creamer rises to $0.50 per packet. What is the substitution effect of this price change?

Since Robert treats coffee and creamer as perfect complements, this implies that there there is nothing like substitution effect under this condition.

Therefore, zero packets of creamer is the substitution effect.