A perfect complement is a good that has to be consumed with another good. The indifference curve of a perfect complement will exhibit a right angle, as illustrated by the figure at the right. Few goods in the real world will behave as perfect complements. One example is a left shoe and a right; shoes are naturally sold in pairs, and the ratio between sales of left and right shoes will never shift noticeably from 1:1 - even if, for example, someone is missing a leg and buys just one shoe.
The degree of complementarity, however, does not have to be mutual; it can be measured by cross price elasticity of demand. In the case of video games, a specific video game (the complement good) has to be consumed with a video game console (the base good). It does not work the other way: a video game console does not have to be consumed with that game.
Read more about this topic: Complementary Good
Famous quotes containing the words perfect and/or complement:
“A pregnant woman and her spouse dream of three babies—the perfect four-month-old who rewards them with smiles and musical cooing, the impaired baby, who changes each day, and the mysterious real baby whose presence is beginning to be evident in the motions of the fetus.”
—T. Berry Brazelton (20th century)
“There may be as much nobility in being last as in being first, because the two positions are equally necessary in the world, the one to complement the other.”
—José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955)