Final answer:
If shoes were sold individually, the cross-price elasticity for left and right shoes would be very high (approaching negative infinity) because they are perfect complements. For shipping costs, using the LibreTexts™ example, the absorbed cost for shipping a 32-ounce pair of shoes would be $6.88 if offered for free.
Step-by-step explanation:
Cross-Price Elasticity for Shoes Bought Individually
If shoes were sold individually, the cross-price elasticity for left and right shoes would be expected to be perfectly complementary, which means the cross-price elasticity would be negative and likely have a large absolute value. When goods are complements, as one's price goes up, the demand for the other tends to fall, and vice versa. However, in the case of left and right shoes, they are perfect complements; people generally buy them together.
In theory, if we started to buy single shoes instead of pairs, the cross-price elasticity of demand would likely approach negative infinity, signifying that a price change in one shoe (left or right) would result in an infinite decrease in the quantity demanded for the other shoe, because by their very nature, one is not useful without the other.
To tie in the notion of shipping and handling fees, if a business were to offer free shipping, the cost absorbed per pair of shoes would depend on the weight and the postal service's pricing. As per the LibreTexts™ example, the cost of shipping for a 32-ounce package would be $6.88. If each shoe were to weigh 16 ounces, together forming a 32-ounce pair, this would be the cost absorbed by the seller for every pair shipped.