Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Decisions and Consumer Behavior

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Principles of Microeconomics

Part of the book series: Springer Texts in Business and Economics ((STBE))

  • 191k Accesses

Abstract

This chapter covers …

  • the concepts of preferences and utility functions and how these are related.

  • how the assumption that individuals maximize preferences can be used to determine the individual demand functions on a competitive market.

  • the strengths and weaknesses of this approach as a foundation of choice and decision-making in general and the structure of demand functions specifically.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 44.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Hicks, J. R., & Allen, R. G. D. (1934). A Reconsideration of the Theory of Value. Part I. Economica, 1(1), 52–76.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keynes, J. M. (1936). The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Slutsky, E. E. (1915/1952). Sulla teoria del bilancio del consumatore. Giornale degli Economisti, 51, 1–26. English edition: On the theory of the budget of the consumer (trans Ragusa, O.). In G. J. Stigler, & K. E. Boulding (Eds.), Readings in Price Theory (pp. 27–56). Homewood, Ill.: Irwin.

    Google Scholar 

Further Reading

  • Arrow, K. J. (1989). Economic Theory and the Hypothesis of Rationality, The New Palgrave: Utility and Probability.

    Google Scholar 

  • Becker, G. S. (1976). The Economic Approach to Human Behavior. Chicago University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elster, J. (1989). Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences. Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mas-Colell, A., Whinston, M. D., & Green, J. R. (1995). Microeconomic Theory. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Varian, H. R. (1992). Microeconomic Analysis. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Business Ethics, University of St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland

    Martin Kolmar

Authors
  1. Martin Kolmar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Martin Kolmar .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Kolmar, M. (2017). Decisions and Consumer Behavior. In: Principles of Microeconomics. Springer Texts in Business and Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57589-6_7

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation