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Demand, Supply, Market Equilibrium and Elasticity

Good Essays

Demand, Supply, Market Equilibrium and Elasticity A. Elasticity of demand is shown when the demands for a service or goods vary according to the price. Cross-price elasticity is shown by a change in the demand for an item relative to the change in the price of another. For substitutes, when there is a price increase of an item, there is an increase in the demand for another item. When viewing complements, if there is an increase in the price of an item, the demand for another item decreases. Income elasticity is shown when there is a change in the demand for a good relative to a change in income. This concept is shown in how people will change their spending habits when their income levels change. For …show more content…

E. An example of availability of substitutes is bottled water. Because there are so many brands of bottled water on the market, it makes it very easy for consumers to switch to another brand if the price changes on the brand they normally purchase. With the many brands available, the demand for this certain brand would surely decrease, decreasing revenue for the company. An example of share of consumer income devoted to a good is sugar versus a 20 lb. bag of Pedigree dog food. If the price on these items were increased by 15%, consumers would notice the price on the dog food before the sugar. Normally, the dog food costs approximately $15 and the bag of sugar normally costs $3. The dog food’s price would increase to $17.25, while the bag of sugar would only cost $3.45. Consumers would still purchase the sugar and would have no impact on the demand; however, consumers may begin looking for substitutes for the dog food, which will begin decreasing the company’s revenue. An example of consumers’ time horizon is when stopping to the local convenience store to purchase gas for the vehicle. Normally, the price of gas only fluctuates $0.02 to $0.03/gallon on any given day. If, one day, the store decides to increase the price of gas by $0.15/gallon, there will, more than likely, not be any fluctuations on the demand initially because consumers normally go to this store to purchase gas and don’t really think about how much the gas costs or are running late or the

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