<p>U(X, Y)=min(X, Y) means that your utility is whichever is lower in x and y.</p>
<p>In other words, if you have a tremendous amount of y but very few x, then your utility is decided by x. The reason is that y is useless without x. Extra y will not bring you any extra utilities.</p>
<p>The reason this graph is L shape is that you can only increase your utility by consuming both more good x and good y. If you spend more money and consume more goods y, you are moving up on your indifference curve, but you are still staying at the same indifference curve. Therefore your utility is not going up.</p>
<p>The exact opposite would be the perfect substitute curve, in which consuming any less amount of good X can be perfectly complemented by the extra consumption in Y.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-10-12T04:17:56.900Z
2022-12-08T02:17:36.080Z
2022-12-08T02:17:36.080Z
walter pu
<p>If you have three left shoes and three right shoes, you do not get any additional utility by acquiring another left shoe or 100 more left shoes.</p>
<p>Consequently, for a fixed level of one good, the utility does not increase, giving the L-shaped indifference curves where you are indifferent between <span class="math-container">$(1,1)$</span> and <span class="math-container">$(2,1)$</span> and <span class="math-container">$(2000,1)$</span>.</p>
<p>(I’m not completely sold on shoes being perfect complements. After all, if you have two left shoes and a right shoe, you could have a spare shoe for when you find a bug in the house, so there might be slightly more utility from having a second left shoe.)</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-10-08T16:03:30.277Z
@AdamBailey A bug in the house
Dave
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-10-08T13:49:27.487Z
2022-10-08T17:16:15.563Z
2022-10-08T17:16:15.563Z
Dave
<p>Why is this graph shaped like the letter&quot;L&quot;？
<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/lCczB.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/lCczB.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>

<microeconomics><finance>
Hi Can someone explain this picture?
Gavin
# Hi Can someone explain this picture?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-10-08)

Why is this graph shaped like the letter"L"？
[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/lCczB.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/lCczB.png)

**Tags:** microeconomics, finance

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2022-10-08. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

If you have three left shoes and three right shoes, you do not get any additional utility by acquiring another left shoe or 100 more left shoes.

Consequently, for a fixed level of one good, the utility does not increase, giving the L-shaped indifference curves where you are indifferent between $(1,1)$ and $(2,1)$ and $(2000,1)$.

(I’m not completely sold on shoes being perfect complements. After all, if you have two left shoes and a right shoe, you could have a spare shoe for when you find a bug in the house, so there might be slightly more utility from having a second left shoe.)

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: @AdamBailey A bug in the house  

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### Answer by username_1 on 2022-10-12. Score: 1

U(X, Y)=min(X, Y) means that your utility is whichever is lower in x and y.

In other words, if you have a tremendous amount of y but very few x, then your utility is decided by x. The reason is that y is useless without x. Extra y will not bring you any extra utilities.

The reason this graph is L shape is that you can only increase your utility by consuming both more good x and good y. If you spend more money and consume more goods y, you are moving up on your indifference curve, but you are still staying at the same indifference curve. Therefore your utility is not going up.

The exact opposite would be the perfect substitute curve, in which consuming any less amount of good X can be perfectly complemented by the extra consumption in Y.


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