Assertion (A): Under monotonic preferences, the bundles (5, 10) and (10, 5) can lie on the same indifference curve.
Reason (R): Under monotonic preferences, a bundle with more of good 1 is always preferred, whatever the amount of good 2 in it.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → (A) is true but (R) is false.
Assertion (A): Under monotonic preferences, the bundles (5, 10) and (10, 5) can lie on the same indifference curve. — True. (10, 5) has more of good 1 but less of good 2. Monotonic preferences do not rank such a pair, so the consumer can be indifferent between them.
Reason (R): Under monotonic preferences, a bundle with more of good 1 is always preferred, whatever the amount of good 2 in it. — False. A bundle is preferred only if it has more of at least one good and no less of the other. A bundle with more of good 1 but less of good 2 need not be preferred.
NCERT (2026-27): “Monotonic Preferences Consumer’s preferences are assumed to be such that between any two bundles (x1, x2) and (y1, y2), if (x1, x2) has more of at least one of the goods and no less of the other good compared to (y1, y2), then the consumer prefers (x1, x2) to (y1, y2). Preferences of this kind are called monotonic preferences. …” “1. Indifference curve slopes downwards from left to right: An indifference curve slopes downwards from left to right, which means that in order to have more of bananas, the consumer has to forego some mangoes. … Thus, as long as the consumer is on the same indifference curve, an increase in bananas must be compensated by a fall in quantity of mangoes.” |