Theory Of Price

  

Categories: Financial Theory

We’ve all seen it before: the classic supply and demand graph. The theory of price is basically that graph: the economic theory that price for a good or service is based on the equilibrium where supply and demand meet.

The more demand there is for a limited good, the higher the price will be. The higher the supply, the less scarce it is, and the lower the price will be. Things like available substitute goods, seasonality, availability of raw materials, and market competition—all those outside forces you can’t really control—all factor in, affecting supply and demand.

And, of course, not all goods and services are created equal. Some goods have high price elasticity of demand, meaning that people change their behavior when prices change...while others have low price elasticity of demand, which means people will keep buying the goods, even when prices are changing.

The theory of price makes all of these outside forces endogenous. Supply and demand curves can rotate and shift, but at the end of the day, it’s the equilibrium that determines the price. In neoclassical theory, anyway.

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And finance Allah shmoop What is general price level You

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go to the sort of by your usual weekly staples

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replacement anima tubes Every week you buy the same things

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individual items move in all different directions Prices for some

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of the items might go up while prices for others

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might go down even when everything moves in the same

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direction While the prices don't change at the same rate

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some see big jumps in price Some barely see moves

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at all For instance in the past year the price

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two percent No big deal however Pickled kiwi rinds have

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nine cents an increase of nearly eight and a half

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percent Yeah much bigger deal Meanwhile the price of anima

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tube's actually fell during the year leaking or dipping to

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six dollars forty nine cents from six seventy four Well

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those air individual price levels But what about general price

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levels Will the general price level is a measure of

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prices across an entire system not just the direction of

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a price the direction of all prices You know general

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prices Right So this week all the items in your

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grocery cart cost you twenty dollars Two cents That's your

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general price level If you want to make an economic

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indicator out of it well call it your personal general

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price indicator or PGP I once you know the general

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price level while you contract overall price changes over time

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So a year ago the four items that you buy

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every week totaled nineteen dollars Forty two cents This year

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Twenty dollars two cents Your PGP I rose three point

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one percent from last year And there's a map new

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minus old overalls that you get that percent growth formula

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thinking well In real life he's general price levels are

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used to track inflation or deflation though well it doesn't

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happen all that often deflating things People like to rattle

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off inflation stats but it's actually a tricky thing to

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really track Honestly you're fairly er accurately in a complex

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economy prices for various products are moving in different directions

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all the time and a different rates all the time

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Combining all this action into a single stat well is

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extremely complicated There are a lot of competing indicators that

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measure the general price levels in the overall economy The

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most high profile of these is the Consumer Price index

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or CP I It works like the total price is

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for your weekly grocery basket except that the CP I

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includes a big basket like a basket with a representative

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sample off of all the stuff people by at least

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all the stuff that CPS measures And it's like thousands

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of things Your personal consumer price index may include just

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those four items that you buy every week You know

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the basket where one in four of the items are

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enema tube But the C P I R consumer price

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index is a lot broader thousands of items that people

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die all the time or in that index So yeah

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enema to prices make up well hopefully far less than 00:03:13.87 --> [endTime] twenty five percent of that index What

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