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If all the people of the economy increase the proportion of income they save (i.e. if the mps of the economy increases) the total value of savings in the economy will not increase – it will either decline or remain unchanged. This result is known as the Paradox of Thrift – which states that as people become more thrifty they end up saving less or same as before. This result, though sounds apparently impossible, is actually a simple application of the model we have learned. Let us continue with the example. Suppose at the initial equilibrium of Y, there is an exogenous or autonomous shift in people's expenditure pattern – they suddenly become more circumspect and conservative about their expenditures. Hence the MPS of the economy increases, or, alternatively, the MPC decreases. The multiplier is an important concept to find out the effect of the autonomous expenditure on aggregate output whose value is calculated by 1/1-MPC, where, MPC is equal to 1-MPS.

Which of the following describes the marginal propensity to save ?

Solution

✅ Correct Option: 2

Marginal propensity to save is the change in saving resulting from a one-unit increase in disposable income, i.e., MPS=ΔSΔYMPS = \frac{\Delta S}{\Delta Y}. Option 1 describes the average propensity to save, not MPS.

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