Types of Price Elasticity of Demand

Price Elasticity of demand can be defined as a measure of change in quantity demanded to the corresponding change in price. Below are the various types of elasticity of demand 1. Elastic Demand If the change in price leads to greater change than proportional change in demand then the demand for that good is price elastic. For example a 20% fall in price leads to a 30% increase in quantity demanded. 2. Inelastic Demand If the change in price leads to less than proportional change in demand then the demand for that good is price inelastic. For example a 30% increase in price leads to a 15% fall in quantity demanded. 3. Unitary Demand - If the change in price leads to equal change in demand then the demand for that good is unitary. For example a 10% increase in price leads to 10% decrease in demand. 4. Perfectly Elastic Demand It refers to a situation when any change in price will see quantity demanded fall to zero. 5. Perfectly Inelastic Demand It refers to a situation when any change in price will not affect the demand for a good that is quantity demanded will remain unchanged irrespective of change in the price of that good.

Factors Determining Price Elasticity of Demand: The price elasticity of demand is not the same for all commodities. It may be or low depending upon number of factor. These factors which influence price elasticity of demand, in brief, are as under: (i) Proportion of income price changed. In developing countries of the world, the per capital income of the people is generally low. They spend a greater amount of their income on the purchase of necessaries of life such as wheat, milk, course cloth etc. They have to purchase these commodities whatever be their price. The demand for goods of necessities is, therefore, less elastic or inelastic. The demand for luxury goods, on the other hand is greatly elastic.

For example, if the price of burger falls, its demand in the cities will go up. (ii) Number of Available Substitutes. If a good has greater number of close substitutes available in the market, the demand for the good will be greatly elastic. For examples, if the price of Coca Cola rises in the market, people will switch over to the consumption of Pepsi Cola, which is its close substitute. So the demand for Coca Cola is elastic. (iii) importance or degree of necessity of goods. If the proportion of income spent on the purchase of a good is very small, the demand for such a good will be inelastic. For example, if the price of a box of matches or salt rises by 50%, it will not affect the consumers demand for these goods. The demand for salt, maker box therefore will be inelastic. On the other hand, if the price of a car rises from $6 lakh to $9 lakh and it takes a greater portion of the income of the consumers, its demand would fall. The demand for car is, therefore, elastic. (iv) Time Period. The period of time plays an important role in shaping the demand curve. In the short run, when the consumption of a good cannot be postponed, its demand will be less elastic. In the long run if the rise price persists, people will find out methods to reduce the consumption of goods. So the demand for a good in the, long run is elastic, other things remaining constant. For example if the price of electricity goes up, it is very difficult to cut back its consumption in the short run. However, if the rise in price persists, people will plan substitution gas heater, fluorescent bulbs etc. so that they use less^ electricity. So the electricity of demand will be greater (Ed = > 1) in the long run than in the short run.
Practice Problems for Elasticity
Problem : Yesterday, the price of envelopes was $3 a box, and Julie was willing to buy 10 boxes. Today, the price has gone up to $3.75 a box, and Julie is now willing to buy 8 boxes. Is Julie's demand for envelopes elastic or inelastic? What is Julie's elasticity of demand? Solution for Problem 1 >> To find Julie's elasticity of demand, we need to divide the percent change in quantity by the percent change in price. % Change in Quantity = (8 - 10)/(10) = -0.20 = -20% % Change in Price = (3.75 - 3.00)/(3.00) = 0.25 = 25% Elasticity = |(-20%)/(25%)| = |-0.8| = 0.8 Her elasticity of demand is the absolute value of -0.8, or 0.8. Julie's elasticity of demand is inelastic, since it is less than 1.

The Price Elasticity of Demand (commonly known as just price elasticity) measures the rate of response of quantity demanded due to a price change. The formula for the Price Elasticity of Demand (PEoD) is: PEoD = (% Change in Quantity Demanded)/(% Change in Price) Calculating the Price Elasticity of Demand You may be asked the question "Given the following data, calculate the price elasticity of demand when the price changes from $9.00 to $10.00" Using the chart on the bottom of the page, I'll walk you through answering this question. (Your course may use the more complicated Arc Price Elasticity of Demand formula. If so you'll need to see the article on Arc Elasticity) First we'll need to find the data we need. We know that the original price is $9 and the new price is $10, so we have Price(OLD)=$9 and Price(NEW)=$10. From the chart we see that the quantity demanded when the price is $9 is 150 and when the price is $10 is 110. Since we're going from $9 to $10, we have QDemand(OLD)=150 and QDemand(NEW)=110, where "QDemand" is short for "Quantity Demanded". So we have:
Data Price $7 $8 $9 $10 $11 Quantity Demanded 200 180 150 110 60 Quantity Supplied 50 90 150 210 250

Price(OLD)=9 Price(NEW)=10 QDemand(OLD)=150 QDemand(NEW)=110 To calculate the price elasticity, we need to know what the percentage change in quantity demand is and what the percentage change in price is. It's best to calculate these one at a time. Calculating the Percentage Change in Quantity Demanded The formula used to calculate the percentage change in quantity demanded is: [QDemand(NEW) - QDemand(OLD)] / QDemand(OLD) By filling in the values we wrote down, we get: [110 - 150] / 150 = (-40/150) = -0.2667 We note that % Change in Quantity Demanded = -0.2667 (We leave this in decimal terms. In percentage terms this would be -26.67%). Now we need to calculate the percentage change in price.

Calculating the Percentage Change in Price Similar to before, the formula used to calculate the percentage change in price is: [Price(NEW) - Price(OLD)] / Price(OLD) By filling in the values we wrote down, we get: [10 - 9] / 9 = (1/9) = 0.1111 We have both the percentage change in quantity demand and the percentage change in price, so we can calculate the price elasticity of demand. Final Step of Calculating the Price Elasticity of Demand We go back to our formula of: PEoD = (% Change in Quantity Demanded)/(% Change in Price) We can now fill in the two percentages in this equation using the figures we calculated earlier. PEoD = (-0.2667)/(0.1111) = -2.4005 When we analyze price elasticities we're concerned with their absolute value, so we ignore the negative value. We conclude that the price elasticity of demand when the price increases from $9 to $10 is 2.4005. How Do We Interpret the Price Elasticity of Demand? A good economist is not just interested in calculating numbers. The number is a means to an end; in the case of price elasticity of demand it is used to see how sensitive the demand for a good is to a price change. The higher the price elasticity, the more sensitive consumers are to price changes. A very high price elasticity suggests that when the price of a good goes up, consumers will buy a great deal less of it and when the price of that good goes down, consumers will buy a great deal more. A very low price elasticity implies just the opposite, that changes in price have little influence on demand. Often an assignment or a test will ask you a follow up question such as "Is the good price elastic or inelastic between $9 and $10". To answer that question, you use the following rule of thumb:
y y y

If PEoD > 1 then Demand is Price Elastic (Demand is sensitive to price changes) If PEoD = 1 then Demand is Unit Elastic If PEoD < 1 then Demand is Price Inelastic (Demand is not sensitive to price changes)