Question

A newspaper story on the effect of higher milk prices on the market for ice cream contained the following: "As a result [of the increase in milk prices], retail prices for ice cream are up 4 percent from last year. . . . And ice cream consumption is down 3 percent." Source: John Curran, "Ice Cream, They Scream: Milk Fat Costs Drive Up Ice Cream Prices," Associated Press, July 23, 2001. Based on the information given, what is the price elasticity of demand for ice cream? Group of answer choices

Answer 1

The price elasticity of demand for icecream is -0.75, that means that is inelastic.

Step-by-step explanation:

Price elasticity of demand measures the porcentage of the change in the demand when there is a change in the price. If the change in porcentage of the demand is less than the pocentage of change in the price we talk about inelastic demand. An increase in the price of inelastic goods will result in bigger revenues, as the porcentage in the drop of sales is less than the porcentage of increase in the price.

The formula is: % in change demand/% in change of price

-3%/4= -0.75

The minus symbol indicates that when the price rises the demand decrease.