The late Nobel Laureate Gary Becker once described how an economist should analyze the demand for butter: An economist “would want to consider the price of butter and probably the level of income, the price of margarine, and the size of the population as well. But [the economist] would neglect thousands and thousands of other variables . . . ”
a. What approach to analyzing demand curves is Becker describing?
b. As an economist, how can you hope that your analysis of the demand for butter is accurate if you neglect thousands and thousands of other variables?