Principles of Microeconomics / Unit 2 MIC 0128 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Consumer Surplus
Captions available
The idea
Consumer surplus is the gap between what a buyer would have paid and the price paid, summed over every unit: the area below the demand curve and above the price.
In practice
A buyer willing to pay ninety who pays eighty gains ten dollars.
Where people slip
The marginal buyer, willing to pay exactly the price, gains nothing; surplus belongs to buyers who would have paid more.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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