What This Document Is
This document is a recitation outline for Week Three of Intermediate Microeconomics (ECON 3211) at Columbia University, Fall 2022. It’s designed to accompany the course lectures and provide focused practice on utility maximization and consumer choice. The outline presents two problems designed to be worked through during a recitation session.
Why This Document Matters
This recitation is valuable for students enrolled in ECON 3211 who want to solidify their understanding of core microeconomic principles. It’s particularly helpful for students preparing for exams or needing extra practice applying concepts like monotonic preferences, convex utility functions, Lagrangian optimization, and budget constraints. Recitations bridge the gap between theoretical lectures and practical application.
Common Limitations or Challenges
This document is *not* a substitute for attending lectures or completing assigned readings. It provides practice problems, but doesn’t offer comprehensive explanations of the underlying theory. Students should already be familiar with the concepts before attempting these problems. It also doesn’t provide solutions – it’s intended to be a guided practice exercise.
What This Document Provides
The full document includes:
* Two problems related to consumer choice and utility maximization.
* Problem 1 focuses on a consumer (Bea) with a specific utility function and budget, asking students to verify properties of the function, find an optimal bundle using the Lagrangian method, and analyze the impact of a budget change.
* Problem 2 involves another consumer (Jim) with a different utility function and budget, requiring students to determine optimal consumption levels and analyze marginal rates of substitution.
* Instructions to graphically represent the solutions.
* First-order conditions for the Lagrangian method.
This preview does *not* include the solutions to the problems, the completed graphs, or detailed step-by-step calculations. It only outlines the problems presented within the recitation.
