Consumer Surplus: Benefit from Paying Less Than Willingness to Pay

Steps:

• Recall the economic definition of consumer surplus as the difference between what consumers are willing to pay and what they actually pay.
• Examine choice A: It matches the standard definition directly.
• Check other choices: B confuses buyer and seller willingness; C misinterprets as a discount; D describes excess demand, not surplus.
• Confirm A aligns with supply-demand graph area above price and below demand curve.

Why A is correct:

• Consumer surplus is defined as the area between the demand curve and the market price, representing the excess value consumers receive.

Why the others are wrong:

• B: Mixes consumer willingness with producer supply concepts, unrelated to surplus.
• C: Refers to bulk discounts, not the economic measure of surplus.
• D: Describes a shortage, not consumer surplus.

Final answer: A