This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Elasticity (economics) article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject. Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic. Please sign and date your posts by typing four tildes (~~~~). New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Ask questions, get answers.	Be polite Assume good faith Avoid personal attacks Be welcoming	Article policies No original research Neutral point of view Verifiability

This article is within the scope of the following WikiProjects:

WikiProject Business (Rated Start-Class, Mid-priority) BusinessWikipedia:WikiProject BusinessTemplate:WikiProject BusinessWikiProject Business articles Business and economics portal v • d • e This article is within the scope of WikiProject Business, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Business on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.  Start  This article has been rated as Start-Class on the project's quality scale.  Mid  This article has been rated as Mid-priority on the project's priority scale. WikiProject Economics (Rated C-Class, High-priority) EconomicsWikipedia:WikiProject EconomicsTemplate:WikiProject EconomicsEconomics articles Business and economics portal v • d • e This article is within the scope of WikiProject Economics, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Economics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.  C  This article has been rated as C-Class on the project's quality scale.  High  This article has been rated as High-priority on the project's priority scale. WikiProject Finance (Rated Start-Class, Mid-importance) FinanceWikipedia:WikiProject FinanceTemplate:WikiProject FinanceFinance articles Business and economics portal v • d • e This article is within the scope of WikiProject Finance, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of articles related to Finance on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.  Start  This article has been rated as Start-Class on the project's quality scale.  Mid  This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale. WikiProject Investment (Rated Start-Class, Mid-importance) InvestmentWikipedia:WikiProject InvestmentTemplate:WikiProject InvestmentInvestment articles v • d • e This article is within the scope of WikiProject Investment, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Investment on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.  Start  This article has been rated as Start-Class on the quality scale.  Mid  This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the importance scale.

Contents 1 Talk:Supply and demand 2 variables 3 unit elasticity 4 Mathematical Definition 5 Jargon, jargon, jargon 6 Definition of terms in Application section 7 Applications section: demand and supply 8 Article needs to be more accessible 9 Issues

[edit] Talk:Supply and demand

Hi, see the discussion on Talk:Supply and demand. I'm trying to put a summary of the elasticity concept into that article to help it along to being a featured article. Thanks, Taxman 17:19, Jun 19, 2004 (UTC)

This page sure could use some real world examples! It also, the latter half seems to be far more macro economic than micro; which makes for a bumpy ride. User:Bhyde

[edit] variables

P is price. What is Q?--Gbleem 05:46, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

Quantity --Feinstein 22:11, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

Note that if calculating PED in the vernacular of economics you are measuring the responsiveness of quantity demanded to price changes. If you are calculating YED you are measuring demand to changes in price.Jgard5000 (talk) 01:59, 6 October 2009 (UTC)jgard5000

[edit] unit elasticity

I fail to see how the current diagram depicts unit elasticity. Qwe 08:06, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

I also have a problem with this "simple example". While its true that P/Q remains constant, the difference in slope means that both cannot have the same elasticity at any one price or quantity, since elasticity is the product of the ratio, P/Q, and the slope. I'd like to see this changed, but I am not entirely sure how to demonstrate this easily in a more correct fashion. Sirkha 17:18, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Actually, they have the same elasticity at all prices; I didn't see it right away, either, but since the intercepts are 0 for both, both are unit elastic. It works out pretty easily if you apply the definition:

Maybe there should be a bit more of an explanation in that part of the article? For one thing, it's the product of P/Q and the reciprocal of the slope, which might have been what caused your confusion, Sirkha. --Dirk Gently 03:02, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

Same problem here. Maybe this graph is more helpful: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Price_elasticity_of_demand_and_revenue.png taken from this article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_elasticity_of_demand --Chris, October 25, 2007 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.204.103.254 (talk) 13:49, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Mathematical Definition

While it is interesting to show what the slope is on the graph, in economics, these two axis are not typically the "x" and "y" axis, but the "P" and "Q" axis. The use of x and y makes it hard to correspond elasticity to price and quantity. Sirkha 17:22, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Jargon, jargon, jargon

I think, there are too many jargons that the article is not useful to layperson. I've added what elasticity means in everyday language, rather than what is typically explained in economic classes. __earth ^(Talk) 07:14, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Definition of terms in Application section

The end of the Application section says "And at E=-1, demand is unit elastic (or unitary elastic), and thus MC=MB and MNB=0". While MR (used earlier) was defined previously as "marginal revenue", there is no definition of MC, MB, and MNB and I don't know what they mean (otherwise I'd edit the article). --Ishi Gustaedr (talk) 17:23, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Applications section: demand and supply

The first paragraph in this section talks only about demand. The second paragraph talks about long-term elasticity, but talks about supply. It would be good if the first paragraph could explain that elasticity can describe both supply and demand. (I'm a non-expert so I haven't madde the change myself) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 139.133.7.37 (talk) 11:00, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Article needs to be more accessible

Elasticity is not that complex, at least not at a basic level. Yet even the summary in this article is hard to understand. Maybe it should start with a simplified concept, such as "in an elastic market lowering prices increases profits but in an inelastic market raising prices increases profits" and then build on that. As it stands this article is not very accessible to those unfamiliar with the concept. 65.197.19.244 (talk) 20:26, 14 May 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Issues

Hello - First, this page needs to be edited - there are quite a few spelling errors. Second, I believe that this article is much too mathematical to be labeled as introductory. The topic is far too important to be of interest only to those interested in econometrics. Write it for a "math phobe" and put the math in an advanced article!23:47, 8 October 2009 (UTC)Richard Betts —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.162.153.32 (talk)