Demand elasticity shows the responsiveness of consumers to a price change in terms of quantity demanded. Supply elasticity shows the responsiveness of producers to a price change in terms of quantity supplied. You should never say "a good is elastic/inelastic". Only demand and supply can be described in terms of elasticity. Inelastic demand / supply means that the percentage change in price is greater than the percentage change in quantity. (People are less responsive to a price change.) Its numerical value is smaller than 1. Elastic demand / supply means that the percentage change in price is smaller than the percentage change in quantity. (People are more responsive to a price change.) Its numerical value is greater than 1. A good (e.g. newspaper) having many substitutes tends to have a more elastic demand. Many substitutes mean keen competition. This is because if there is an increase in the price of Apple Daily, people can switch to any of the other newspapers, which are close substitutes of it, such as Ming Pao. This is supported by the law of demand. Therefore, even if the price change is small, the change in quantity demanded will be great. On the other hand, a good having few substitutes tends to have a more inelastic demand. For example, the demand for water in Hong Kong is very inelastic as the Water Supplies Department is the only supplier (i.e. monopoly). Even if the water bill is charged higher, you can hardly find a substitute to replace it. As a result, the change in quantity demanded in response to the price change is small. Other factors affecting elasticity of demand include proportion of income spent on the good, degree of necessity, habit of consumption, durability, number of uses and length of adjustment period (which is in fact the second law of demand covered in AL syllabus). |