Significance of the Law of D.M.U.
Significance of the Law :
In spite of the criticisms, the law of diminishing marginal utility is a very popular and an important law in Economics because of its universal application.
- Usefulness to the consumers : This law creates awareness among the consumers. To obtain maximum utility from the limited resources, it is necessary to ‘diversify’ the consumption.
- Useful to the government : The law is useful to the government in framing various policies such as progressive tax policy, trade policy, pricing policy
- Basis of paradox of values : The law of diminishing marginal utility helps us to understand the paradox of values. It includes goods that have more value-in-use and zero or less value-in-exchange such as air, water, sunshine etc. as well as goods that have more value-in-exchange and less value-in-use such as gold, diamonds
Basis of law of demand : The law of demand is based on the law of diminishing marginal utility. According to the law of demand, the quantity demanded of a good rises with a fall in price and falls with an increase in price. When a consumer purchases more and more units of a good, its marginal utility steadily declines. Hence, he would buy additional units of a commodity only at a lower price.