Pareto Principle

Categories: Financial Theory

You open your fridge. So much to see, yet nothing to eat. Wait, is that cheddar cheese back there?

You open your closet: nothing to wear. Guess it’s time to dig through the laundry bin...when’s laundry day again?

The Pareto Principle is the 80:20 rule: about 80% of effects are from 20% of causes. Of the 100% of stuff in your fridge, you only eat about 20%...the rest is condiments and old beer from last summer. Of the 100% of clothes you have, you only wear your favorite jeans and tees...about 20% of clothes you own.

Who was the first to recognize this omnipresent god...in your kitchen, in your room...everywhere? Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto was the one who noticed that 80% of Italy’s land was owned by 20% of its population.

Yep, the Pareto principle holds on the micro and macro levels. 80% of business comes from 20% of clients: the “regulars.” 80% of people have 20% of the wealth...that kind of thing. It all follows the Pareto distribution, whose math can be seen in nature. Beautiful, isn’t it? We know there’s 80% of your emotion behind those 20% of tears...you can’t hide the truth from us.

Related or Semi-related Video

Econ: What are Consumer Surplus, Produce...9 Views

00:00

And finance Allah shmoop What Our consumer surplus producer Surplus

00:07

and Alec A tive efficiency shmoop in economics Surplus happens

00:13

when you're getting more than you bargained for When the

00:16

sweet smell of surplus is in the air it means

00:17

somebody got a great deal either a consumer or a

00:20

producer If you're a consumer surplus means you paid less

00:24

for a good or service then you would have been

00:27

willing to pay For example let's look at a Karlis

00:30

pregnant city dweller whose water just broke Yeah since the

00:34

baby's saying It's Hypo time A mom's willing to pay

00:39

a lot of money for a new uber to the

00:41

hospital She might even be willing tio by the uber

00:44

car there She really rather not have her baby's first

00:47

sight to be that of a rat running into a

00:49

gutter with an entire slice of pizza sending the wrong

00:52

message You know but since it's just a normal of

00:54

uber ride on a normal day in normal time well

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she ends up paying a normal price for that uber

00:59

ride to the hospital because the benefit she's getting is

01:02

much higher than the price she'd be willing to pay

01:04

for that ride She's reaping a consumer surplus on that

01:08

ride Well consumer surpluses that area on your typical supply

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and demand curve right under the demand curve there but

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above where the two curves cross like right in there

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Which makes sense if you think about it the demand

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curve which is also the marginal utility curve represent what

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you're willing to pay for a thing right What seems

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fair Anything above that line has you saying Hey man

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what a rip off No way No way I'm paying

01:31

that much while anything below that line has you saying

01:34

Wow What a great deal Too good to pass up

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if you ask me if your producer Well surplus means

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you can get away with selling a good or service

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for a higher price than you would have been willing

01:44

to sell it for Cha Ching Take virtual reality headsets

01:48

Well the first V R headsets were the only ones

01:50

on the market making them rare and you know super

01:53

hi tech gyms The sole producer of the V R

01:55

headsets capitalized on the V R hype and the rarity

01:58

of it all by setting prices is high much higher

02:01

than the price they needed to sell them at in

02:03

order to cover all the cost that went into making

02:05

them In layman's terms we might call this a price

02:08

mark up But people were willing to pay that higher

02:11

price to look like a blindfolded fool and enter other

02:14

realms So that's what the producers charged wouldn't you On

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the supply and demand graph producer surpluses the area above

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the supply curve which is also the marginal cost curve

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but below where the two curves cross right in there

02:27

The actual line of supply curve is what producer willing

02:29

to sell their product for they won't sell anything below

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the line since that would mean they wouldn't even be

02:34

covering their marginal cost like they'd be losing money on

02:37

every sale But selling above the line well thats extra

02:40

profits The higher producers can set their prices above their

02:43

marginal costs assuming consumers are willing to pay for it

02:46

Well the more profits the producer surplus They're reaping what

02:50

happened when Mohr companies started to make Mohr v R

02:53

headsets and there was competition in the marketplace with Mohr

02:55

v R Options on the market v R Headsets became

02:58

less rare When things to buy become more common prices

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go down Yeah whereas one company making V R headsets

03:05

used to enjoy the make it rain monopoly power of

03:09

price setting multiple companies making V R headset makes the

03:12

market competitive When consumers air shopping around in comparing prices

03:16

producers turning to price takers that is they can no

03:19

longer sell their V R Headset said Well pretty much

03:22

any price they want at such high prices because consumers

03:25

will just go buy the same thing cheaper elsewhere Competition

03:29

makes producer surplus shrink and shrink away If the V

03:32

R headset market was perfectly competitive which would be all

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the our headsets made by all producers were exactly the

03:38

same Well then producer surplus would pretty much completely disappear

03:42

meaning it was a total commodity market when both consumers

03:45

and producers feel like they're getting a fair shake or

03:48

a fair trade while money for v R headsets In

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this case we have what's called Alec a tive efficiency

03:53

Well the elegant efficient point is we're supplying demand or

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marginal cost and marginal benefit Cross consumers feel like they're

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getting what they paid for not getting ripped off and

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not getting a deal Producers are no longer rolling around

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in beds covered in producer surplus money but they're not

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losing money either When things were sold at analogue a

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tive efficient level everybody's getting what they paid for no

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more no less All the value is fair Which yeah

04:18

means that where their surplus there's inefficiency right If either

04:22

consumers or producers feel like they're getting a deal a

04:25

surplus while then the market isn't efficient Adam Smith's invisible

04:29

hand does its best to slap surplus out of the

04:31

markets with competition Making things fair for both sides doesn't

04:35

always work out that way But while the invisible hand 00:04:38.14 --> [endTime] you know does what it can

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