Determinants of elasticity example

0:00- [Instructor] We are asked, "which of the following describes a good "that is likely to have the most elastic demand?" Choose one answer. So pause this video and see if you can answer that. All right, so the first choice right over here, they talk about "a luxury with many substitutes."

0:18So we already talked about, when you're dealing with substitutes, if there's a lot of substitutes, that makes the quantity demanded very sensitive to price. So this would make it more elastic to have many substitutes. More elastic. And then the fact that it's a luxury.

0:33It's not something that people need, this would also make quantity more sensitive to price, generally. So we would also say more elastic. So this is looking like a good candidate, but let's check the other options here. "A necessity with few substitutes." Well, this is the opposite.

0:50If it's a necessity, this would be more inelastic, or less elastic. Less elastic. And few substitutes, if you have a change in price for that thing, people say, well, I still have to buy that thing, I can't substitute it with other things. This would also be less elastic.

1:06And remember, we're looking for the most elastic demand, so we can rule this one out. "A broadly defined good such as food." Well, we just talked about that. If we're talking about food, and there's a price change in food, well, we need food, so our quantity demanded might, would not likely change, or our percent change in quantity would not likely be that much.

1:29This would be fairly inelastic. Rule that one out. "Goods that make up a small share of the budget." Well, this goes back to that example with bubblegum. If bubblegum goes from 25 cents to 30 cents, we might not care so much. Versus if a car goes from $25,000 to $30,000.

1:48So the small things that we might not care about price changes so much, if we don't care so much about price changes, that would imply less elasticity, so that definitely would not be the most elastic demand. "Goods that have to be bought "under a short time constraint."

2:03Well, a good example is that it's raining and people need umbrellas right now, in, you know, the next five, 10 minutes, and there, they wouldn't necessarily be so sensitive to price, so this is going to be less elastic, and so once again, we would rule this out.

2:20If we had a long time frame, well, then people might be able to shop around for substitutes and then things might get a little bit more elastic. They would be more sensitive to price. So we definitely like, in this scenario, choice A.