The Consumer Surplus Line Integral Revisited

Tomáš ŠEVČEK

https://doi.org/10.53465/EDAMBA.2022.9788022550420.453-461

 

Abstract: The consumer surplus line integral is a concept which has helped shed some light upon the consumer’s welfare changes due to changes in product prices and/or changes in the consumer’s income. The main objective of this article is to derive the consumer surplus line integral making use of the divergence theorem as well as Green’s theorem. This approach enables the interested reader to come up with other line integrals with the same value. To our knowledge, this is one of the very first direct applications of the two theorems in economics. A partial objective is to summarize the fundamental ideas, definitions and theorems from a branch of vector calculus dealing with curves and line integrals. Therefore, the target audience of the article consists of not only economists studying the consumer’s surplus, but also of quantitative-minded economists seeking for new research methods.

Keywords: consumer’s surplus, vector calculus, line integrals

JEL classification: C60, C69, D11

Fulltext: PDF

Online publication date: 3 March 2023

ISBN: 978-80-225-5042-0

Publisher: University of Economics in Bratislava

Pages: 453-461

 

To cite this proceedings paper (STN ISO 690 and 690-2):

ŠEVČEK, T. 2023. The consumer surplus line integral revisited. In LÜLEYOVÁ, A. (ed.). EDAMBA 2022: Conference Proceedings. Bratislava: University of Economics in Bratislava, 2023. ISBN 978-80-225-5042-0, pp. 453-461. https://doi.org/10.53465/EDAMBA.2022.9788022550420.453-461