Classical Microeconomics and Marginal Analysis (19th Century)

This topic explains the nineteenth-century shift in microeconomics toward marginal analysis, which studies the additional benefits and costs of small changes in economic choices. It introduces utility, total and marginal utility, and the principle of diminishing marginal utility, showing how these ideas help explain consumer choice, demand and price determination under scarcity. Marginal thinking lets consumers compare incremental benefits across uses of their limited income and supports broader cost–benefit decisions about expanding activities.