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Price Elasticity of Demand

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Price Elasticity of Demand

T 's Jean Shop sells designer jeans. The latest trend setter has been Capri cuffed blue jeans. The demand for the Capri jeans has been very high with teenagers and young women. The business has increased its supply of Capri jeans due to the high demand. The owner, Terri Johnson, contemplates increasing the price from $9.00 to $10.00. Ms. Johnson needs to know the response of the consumers to the increased price. According to McConnell and Brue (2004), the Price Elasticity of Demand measures the rate of response of quantity demanded due to a price change (p. 1).
Using Price Elasticity of Demand
In calculating the Price Elasticity of Demand, we use the formula:

percentage change in quantity …show more content…

The negative sign (minus sign) is always ignored when analyzing price elasticity, so the Price Elasticity of Demand is always positive (McConnell & Brue, 2004, p. 2). In the case of T 's Jean Shop, the Capri pants calculated the price elasticity of demand to be 2.4005, which means the Capri jeans are elastic and the demand is very sensitive to the price change. Ms. Johnson wants to determine if any determinants and also how consumers are responding to a change in their income, which is measured by the Income Elasticity of Demand.

Income Elasticity of Demand
T 's Jean Shop has no affect by determinants, except for substitute goods. Ms. Johnson has been able to substitute the designer jeans and Capri pants look with a good generic quality from her supplier in Mexico. However the shop needs to look how the new 10% salary increase by Louisiana State University workers may affect demand for the Capri pants. According to McConnell and Brue (2004), this is done by using the measurement, Income Elasticity of demand, which calculates as follows (p. 16). percentage change in quantity demanded Ei = percentage change in income

Using the equation byEconomics.about.com, calculating the income elasticity of demand when consumer 's income changes from 3% to 10% salary increase you have to calculate The percentage of change in quantity demanded

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