Elastic

  

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Finance: What is Elastic v Inelastic Dem...19 Views

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And finance Allah Shmoop What is elastic versus in elastic

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demand Okay well here's your underwear band I think the

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bane of wedgies super wedgies atomic wedgies and over the

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head mega glop wedgies all around the globe Well what

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do they all have in common Stretchy nous The band

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stretches and moves and gives goodness Well think about the

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elastic as representing the marketplace for a paperback copy of

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Moby Dick It's the same new paperback copy Freshly minted

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with that you know new book smell It's the same

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product whether you bite it Amazon or Barnes and Noble

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or anywhere else for both people you know who shop

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anywhere else and or Barnes and Noble Or at walmart

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dot com which has thirty for more buyers than Barnes

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and Noble So yeah that's the second place winner in

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the book war saga Well Moby Dick here we go

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Yeah same total commodity product and lots of sellers of

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it So the volumes sold depending almost entirely on price

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rather than well if the price of that book drops

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like two percent while you just buy it wherever wherever

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it's sold cheaper right total commodity So the curves move

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around like elastic A buyer will go to the area

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of least resistance price resistance And yeah it's like you

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know what happens in that atomic super wedgie thing So

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if elastic means no pricing power of the cellar and

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likely very low margins for the cellar and a world

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where the buyer has all the power than what in

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elastic All right well it's when you try to do

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an atomic wedgie on some dude wearing steel underwear like

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you know this guy sirloin of beef Well then it

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doesn't move The material is in elastic An elastic would

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be the sole remaining copy of Moby Dick signed by

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Melville himself and still with a little whale blubber oil

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on the manuscript cover there There's only one copy in

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the world and hundreds of billionaires all around the world

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who read or maybe just care about important literature would

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love that copy Could they sell it for fifty bucks

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A thousand one hundred thousand A million shore Probably Sure

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sure sure All the power then is with the one

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seller of that product who can charge almost anything they

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want when they go to sell it So think of

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any elastic demand is being things you can't live without

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Like that last drink of water fore a parched human

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traveller in the desert You know prices go up or

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down like this curve or line thing here and it

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won't matter Buyers will pay and sellers will reap the

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powered rewards of any elasticity Pull on a rubber band

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for a while and it'll move It'll adjust your pressure

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and if you crinkle up a thousand of these bad

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boys and melt him to gather well they'll bounce for

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a long time I think of them as being elastic

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They move a lot just like markets Okay so let's

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think about oil What about that Yeah highly elastic when

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there's lots of supply While the highly competitive industry will

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offer a gallon of gas for less and less and

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less and less until it has sold out all the

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marginal gas it can supply and still at least break

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even All things considered so typically highly elastic industry sell

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commodities where there's no difference in buying a gallon of

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gas from Shell or Chevron or BP Or we've got

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gas dot com or whoever So now go to the

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other end of the street and try pulling on this

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two by four Yeah you can pull all day long

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at eight going nowhere unless you're Superman It is in

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elastic Any elastic demand revolves around things that are irreplaceable

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like those thirty five acres on the beach in Malibu

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only exist in one place and a property like that

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comes up for sale maybe once in a decade So

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it carries any elasticity in its sales process in that

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the seller can put almost any price at once on

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the property and will likely get it The same applies

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to rare vintage Ferraris The signed football used to score

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the winning touchdown in the Super Bowl or elite plastic

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surgeons for wealthy widows of billionaires Economists being economy you

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know I want to make sure that elasticity is something

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they can graph So the equation for elasticity goes something

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like this percent change in quantity to manage over percent

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change in the price There we go Well Q represents

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the quantity and P represents the price There See very

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cleverly named Take two points the quantity at point A

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and then the quantity at point B like note those

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then check the price at both of those points and

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you figure out the percentage change and we'll just get

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the ratio Well the answer gives you a measure of

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the products elasticity Any number bigger than one is considered

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to be elastic meaning It's kind of more commodity ish

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The bigger the number the more elastic it is Like

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water A normal water in any normal city is pretty

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elastic Figures less than one answered like a point five

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point o three Two would be any elastic like the

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smaller the figure the more any elastic the more rare

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Ferrari buyer like it is Well the math may seem

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a tad complicated here but when graphed out well it

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makes a lot of sense Visually the concepts are easy

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to conceive So check out these curves Yeah not very

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curvy Other factors besides simple supply and demand can play

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into whether prices are elastic or any elastic Grover Bio

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Genetics Inc provides a drug that cures a certain kind

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of tale Cancer In dogs The drug is relatively simple

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The manufacture Any moderately competent lab could produce it But

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it's the consumer who feels the verticality of the demand

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curves that is a dog owner whose pooch is suffering

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from painful tale cancer will pay nearly anything to get

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the drug needed to keep their dog alive and licking

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their face will demand for the drug is very any

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elastic Then right Rover Bio genetics can jack up the

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price to whatever they want a jacket to and people

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will pay it well The high price of the drug

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has nothing to do with the manufacturing cost Remember the

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drug is relatively easy to make It has to do

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with the elasticity of the demand for it Biogenetic skin

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charged a high price basically because they can welcome to

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the world of supply demand economics in the elasticity Yeah

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other complications can come into effect as well For instance

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elasticity can change on one demand curves That is to

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say different forces come into play in each curve area

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when determining the demand elasticity Varying considerations impact consumers at

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different points like you find out that you can get

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a cheap generic equivalent of the tail cancer drug in

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Mexico So your pack up little snookums and head down

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to Tijuana The instructions on the drugs say to give

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the pop two pills orally and then make sure to

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give her plenty of water But the guy's front desk

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warned you that they've had some plumbing issues lately and

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you might not want to drink the tap water So

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you have to feed snookums bottled water Teo you know

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take with her pills Now the minibar has bottled water

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It cost nine dollars for this little thing Nine dollars

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Can you believe it Yes Nine You don't want to

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leave Snow comes alone in the hotel room So you're

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tempted Teo Just pay the high minibar price But if

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you just leave the room for a few minutes while

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you khun go to the hotel bar You know they

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sell bottled water for still a whopping six dollars each

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but at least he saved three bucks And then if

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you're willing to take a longer trip while you can

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you know uber toe walmart to Mexico and by water

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in bulk for less than a dollar a bottle So

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like why wouldn't you do that Yeah because well we're

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all lazy but snow comes Yeah let's give her a 00:07:24.846 --> [endTime] little kiss In the world

Up Next

Econ: What is elasticity?
3 Views

What is elasticity? Elasticity refers to the degree of demand to quality or price changes in the market to a product or service. Products or servic...

Find other enlightening terms in Shmoop Finance Genius Bar(f)