Chapter 2 Consumer Demand Analysis

The authors first introduce the concept of the limits to choice, which is related to possibilities that describes consumer behavior along with preferences. Rather than what possibility there are, the emphasis in this field is made on a constraint of this possibilities.

They say that “unlike preferences, the opportunities for choice are often directly observable so that, to the extent that variations in behavior can be traced to variations in opportunities, we have a straightforward and objective explanation of observed phenomena.”

On page 45, the authors say that “symmetry is a guarantee of and test of the consumer’s consistency of choice; without it, inconsistent choices are made.”