In microeconomics, the market demand for a product is best described as which of the following?

• A. The quantity that a single representative consumer is willing and able to buy at each price
• B. The horizontal sum of all individual consumers’ demand curves at each price
• C. The vertical sum of all individual consumers’ demand curves at each quantity
• D. The total revenue firms receive at each price level

Answer: (B)

Verified step by step guidance

1. Understand that the market demand curve represents the total quantity demanded by all consumers in the market at each price level.
2. Recall that individual demand curves show the quantity demanded by a single consumer at various prices.
3. To find the market demand, you need to combine all individual demand curves horizontally, meaning you add the quantities demanded by each consumer at the same price.
4. This process is called the horizontal summation of individual demand curves, which gives the total quantity demanded in the market at each price.
5. Recognize that vertical summation is used for supply curves or other contexts, but for demand, the correct aggregation is horizontal summation.