Properties of indifference curve

Properties of Indifference Curve:

1. Indifference curves are always convex to the origin:

An indifference curve is convex to the origin because of the law of diminishing marginal utility. For example,let us assume that a consumer is consuming a combination of apples and bananas.when he consumes more and more of apples, his marginal utility from apples keeps on declining and he is willing to give up less and less of bananas for each apple. Therefore, indifference curves are convex to the origin . 

2. Indifference curve slope downwards:

It implies that as a consumer consumes more of one good, he must consume less of the other good. It happens because if the consumer decides to have more units of one good (say apples), he will have to reduce the number of units of another good (say bananas), so that total utility remains the same.

3. Higher Indifference curves represent higher levels of satisfaction:

Higher indifference curve represents large bundle of goods, which means more utility because of monotonic preference. Consider two indifference curves IC1 and IC2. The points on IC2 will give the consumer more satisfactions than the points on IC1 because he will be getting more amount of one good with the sacrifice of another good than he was getting in IC1. So he will prefer the higher indifference curve. 

4. Indifference curves can never intersect each other:

As two indifference curves cannot represent the same level of satisfaction, they cannot intersect each other. It means, only one indifference curve will pass through a given point on an indifference map.  For eg;-
Satisfaction from point A and from B on IC1 will be the same.Similarly, points A and C on IC2 also give the same level of satisfaction. It means, points B and C should also give the same level of satisfaction. However, this is not possible, as B and C lie on two different indifference curves, IC1 and IC2 respectively and represent different levels of satisfaction. Therefore, two indif­ference curves cannot intersect each other.

5.In reality, Indifference Curves are like Bangles:

But as a matter of principle their effective region is in the form of segments. This is so because Indifference Curves are assumed to be negatively sloping and convex to the origin. An individual can move to the higher indifference. Curves I2 and I3, until he reaches the saturation upon S where his total utility is the maximum. If the consumer increases his consumption beyond X and Y his total utility will fall.

6.They Slope Negatively or Slope Downwards from the Left to the Right:

This is an important feature of Indifference Curve. If the total satisfaction is to remain the same, the consumer must part with a diminishing number of bananas as he gets as increasing stock of oranges. The loss of satisfaction to the consumer on account of the downward movement must be made up by the gain through the rightward movement. As such the Indifference Curve must slope downwards to the right.

7.They Slope Negatively or Slope Downwards from the Left to the Right:

This is an important feature of Indifference Curve. If the total satisfaction is to remain the same, the consumer must part with a diminishing number of bananas as he gets as increasing stock of apples. The loss of satisfaction to the consumer on account of the downward movement must be made up by the gain through the rightward movement. As such the Indifference Curve must slope downwards to the right.
8. Arbitrary naming of curves:
The numbers I1, I2, I3, I4,………… etc. given to indifference curves are absolutely arbitrary. Any numbers can be given to indifference curves. The numbers can be in the ascending order of 1, 2, 4, 6 or 2, 3, 1, 4 etc. Numbers have no importance in the indifference curve analysis.
9. An indifference curve cannot touch either axis:
If it touches X-axis  the consumer will be having Only quantity of good X and none of Y. Similarly, if an in difference curve touches the У-axis the consumer will have only quantity of Y good and no amount of X. Such curves are in contradiction to the as­sumption that the consumer buys two goods in combinations.
10.Indifference curves are not necessarily parallel to each other:
Though they are falling, negatively inclined to the right, yet the rate of fall will not be the same for all indifference curves. In other words, the dimin­ishing marginal rate of substitution between the two goods is essentially not the same in the case of all indifference schedules.

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