Mostly summarized from Gregory Mankiw’s Principles of Economics, 5th Ed. PART 7 Topics for Further Study Chapter 21 of 36 The Theory of Consumer Choice Section 6 of 26 … Because indifference curves show a consumer's preferences, they have properties that reflect those preferences. Next, we consider four properties of indifference curves. Property 1 - higher (farther right) indifference curves are preferred to lower ones Property 2 - indifference curves are downward sloping Property 3 - indifference curves do not cross Property 4 - indifference curves are bowed inward … Property 1 – higher (farther right) indifference curves are preferred to lower ones This is because people usually prefer to consume more goods than less. Figure 2 higher indifference curve I2 shows one can buy larger quantities of goods than lower indifference curve I1. Higher income or lower prices allows movement from I1 to I2. … Property 2 - indifference curves are downward sloping The slope of an indifferen...