Reflective Exercise: Takeaway curries – when have you had enough?
1
Is the price of a product for immediate consumption – like a
takeaway curry – equal to its worth or benefit to a consumer?
The Setting
When you buy a product, such as a curry, what is it worth to you? More than you
paid, less than you paid or what?
Section 1: Parts A, B and C
Setting the framework for investigating this question
Take a note of your responses in your own hard copy
A
Put a cross by however many of the following you think are appropriate
We shall consider a takeaway curry as a representative good and
apply the appropriate standard economic theory.
We will have to consider takeaway curries in particular because
consumers buy many different types of goods for different reasons.
We will assume that the demand curve for takeaway curries slopes
downward with respect to price.
We will assume that consumers make rational decisions.
We will assume that consumers will satisfy their needs and desires.
B
Put a cross by however many of the following you think are appropriate
We will consider the demand curve.
We will consider both demand and supply.
We will consider shifts in demand and supply.
We will have to consider towns where there are many takeaway
outlets and those where there are few as this may affect the
price.
a
b
c
d
e
a
b
c
d
C Put a cross by however many of the following you think are appropriate
Some consumers will get more benefit from buying a takeaway at
a particular time than others.
b
An individual consumer will not always get the same benefit from
a takeaway curry. It depends on how many curries they have
already consumed recently, the time and the place.
c
Economics assumes the benefits are all constant no matter how
much is consumed.
a
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Copyright: Embedding Threshold Concepts Project
20/08/07
This project is funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Department for Employment and
Learning (DEL) under the Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning.