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How might an individual's supply curve for labor differ from the market supply curve for labor?

- At high wages, an individual's labor supply curve may have a negative slope.
- At low wages, an individual's labor supply curve may have a negative slope.
- At low wages, the market supply curve for labor may have a negative slope.
- At high wages, the market supply curve for labor may have a negative slope.

User Vijayender
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Final answer:

An individual's labor supply curve might slope downwards at high wages if they choose leisure over work, whereas the market supply curve for labor usually remains upward-sloping as higher wages attract more labor.

Step-by-step explanation:

Individual and market labor supply curves differ mainly in response to changes in wages. Specifically, an individual's labor supply curve might have a negative slope at high wages because the individual may choose more leisure time over additional work. Conversely, the market supply curve for labor typically remains upward-sloping: as wages increase, the quantity of labor supplied in the market as a whole increases, because more workers are attracted by the higher wages.

At low wages, an individual might supply more labor to meet basic financial needs, which reflects the upward-sloping portion of the labor supply curve. However, the individual's curve could potentially have a negative slope at high wages if the individual values leisure time more than the additional income gained from working more hours. On the other hand, the market supply curve for labor normally will not slope downwards because as wages rise, overall, more people are willing to work or existing workers are willing to work more hours.

User Simon Hartcher
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