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Price Elasticity of Demand

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Price elasticity of demand
In economics and business studies, the price elasticity of demand (PED) is an elasticity that measures the nature and degree of the relationship between changes in quantity demanded of a good and changes in its price.
Introduction
When the price of a good falls, the quantity consumers demand of the good typically rises; if it costs less, consumers buy more. Price elasticity of demand measures the responsiveness of a change in quantity demanded for a good or service to a change in price.
Mathematically, the PED is the ratio of the relative (or percent) change in quantity demanded to the relative change in price. For most goods this ratio is negative, but in practice the elasticity is represented as a positive …show more content…

It may be possible that quantity demanded for a good rises as its price rises, even under conventional economic assumptions of consumer rationality. Two such classes of goods are known as Giffen goods or Veblen goods. Another case is the price inflation during an economic bubble. Consumer perception plays an important role in explaining the demand for products in these categories. A starving musician who offers lessons at a bargain basement rate of $5.00 per hour will continue to starve, but if the musician were to raise the price to $35.00 per hour, consumers may perceive the musician's lessons ability to charge higher prices as an indication of higher quality, thus increasing the quantity of lessons demanded.

Various research methods are used to calculate price elasticity:
• Test markets
• Analysis of historical sales data
• Conjoint analysis
Mathematical definition
The formula used to calculate the coefficient of price elasticity of demand for a given product is
This simple formula has a problem, however. It yields different values for Ed depending on whether Qd and Pd are the original or final values for quantity and price. This formula is usually valid either way as long as you are consistent and choose only original values or only final values.
A more elegant and reliable calculation

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