Meaning & use
inelastic demand
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Meaning
noununcountabletechnical
A situation in which buyers keep purchasing nearly the same amount of a product even when its price rises or falls.
Grammar: Usually uncountable, with a modifier: demand for salt is inelastic.
Patterns
- inelastic demand for something
Insulin has inelastic demand because patients need it whatever it costs.
Because of inelastic demand, the gas station kept its customers after raising prices.
Economists say salt shows inelastic demand.
Common combinations
- relatively inelastic demand
- Demand for bread is relatively inelastic.
- perfectly inelastic demand
- A perfectly inelastic demand curve is vertical.
- inelastic demand for
- There is inelastic demand for tap water.
- face inelastic demand
- Utilities often face inelastic demand.
Synonyms and how they differ
- price-insensitive demand
- A plainer description that avoids the technical term elasticity.
Opposites
Word family
- inelastic adjective
- not changing much when conditions change
- elasticity noun
- how much one quantity responds to a change in another
- demand noun
- the amount of a good people want to buy
Commonly confused: inelastic demand or elastic demand?
inelastic demand vs elastic demand
With elastic demand, a small price rise causes a large drop in purchases; with inelastic demand it does not.
Practice
A city raises bus fares by 10 percent but ridership barely changes. This suggests the demand is ____.
Choose one answer.
Little change in quantity after a price change shows inelastic demand. Elastic demand would show a large drop.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “inelastic demand”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.