EconM2015 September 2013

The mayor of Chicago, USA, Rahm Emanuel, wants to place a specific tax on cigarette packs, 75c per unit more than before. Though he sais he is doing it in the city's best interest: to have more city funds available for low-income children with vision problems, and other projects that require funding.

This is a very old article (1993) that talks about how the taxes should be set on the packs of cigarettes. The goal is to pay for the same amount of the increase of medical attention demand in the article as it seems.

This article is about the exise tax revenue on tabacco in october of 2013.

This article talks about the demand of housing and the problems of estimating income elasticity of demand

This article talks about how the PED of tobacco is not as inelastic as once previously thought. The price of tobacco is increasing due to the government adding taxes, and because of the large increases in prices, the demand for tobacco is decreasing.

This article compares the incomes of different households in the US showing the increase percentage in wealthier incomes and the decreased percentage of more poor incomes based on the wealthier income increase. This shows money, which is scare, being unequally distributed throughout a nation.

This article describes a relationship between a slight drop in disposable income and a correlating drop in consumer spending in the high streets of Northern Ireland. Even though the economic state of Northern Ireland is steadily improving, consumers did not see a noticeable increase in real wages, so it is not reflected in consumer spending.

Due to disposable incomes, people can afford to buy new and more cars. The car industries are stockpiling because car sales have increased and are predicted to further increase the coming years. Companies profits and revenues have risen. They can therefore supply more cars.

This article shows the demand of the new Ipad

This article describes the launch plans and the Xbox marketing chief's opinions on the profits made shortly after the launch in late November. He sais that even though all pre-orders have been sold out, due to the production, marketing, and development costs, there will be a very low margin at first. So even though the demand is very high, the price and supply are to inelastic to provide a higher margin for Microsoft.

This article talks about how shoppers change their spending habits during the recession in America. 83% of survey respondents say that price is a major factors. They have taken different steps in cutting back on elastic goods like: Switching grocery stores, buying less clothes or not branded clothes. However, shoppers did not cut back on certain goods like meat and seafood, milk, coffee, and alcohol. That is because they are necessary inelastic goods. So even with a lower Income elasticity, people still have to buy inelastic goods.

This article describes the findings of Lanre Kassim of the University of Kent, who has found out that the trade liberalisation of economies in sub-Saharan African countries has not been able to affect the YED of imports and exports, meaning that trade liberalisation has not significantly changed the rate of change of income in these countries. However, Kassim states that PED of exports and imports has increased, and thus a significant change in demand can be recognised, however little the change in total income may remain.

This article outlines the rising gasoline price in US in 2008 and speculation about how and whether Americans will change their behavior in the long run. The article compares the change in gas price in US to many other countries, and give the PED value of gasoline. So check it out!

This article outlines the rising gasoline price in US in 2008 and speculation about how and whether Americans will change their behavior in the long run. The article compares the change in gas price in US to many other countries, and give the PED value of gasoline. So check it out! (week 9)

This article is about the spike in corn prices in 2007. It talks about the price of corn which is the main ingredient in ethanol, the primary alternative fuel, is increasing fast and causing a series of problems on the market e.g. the price of other food which is made of corn is rising dramatically, farmers complains that corn price is too high for them to feed live-stocks. There are also many predictions in the article about the future price of corn based on the demand and supply rules. This is an great article related to what we have learned. So check it out!!

Being from Brazil, this article is very interesting personally. However; I can assume that most of you like sugar or at least eat something that contains it! The amount of sugar lost in this fire is tremendous and will cause the price of sugar to rise in the future. Check it out!

Over the years, many state-university systems have shifted more of their financial aid away from students who need it toward those whose résumés merit it. This article relates to our education system as well as economics. So check it out!!

A few weeks ago the Nicholls Worth ran this article about Jindal's plan to change the structure of taxation in Louisiana, moving away from income taxes and toward sales taxes. More recently, more details of the governor's tax proposals have been released, as we see in this article from the Baton Rouge Advocate.I believe it is very interesting.

This article discuss the value of the price elasticity of demand for the iPhone. If calculated according to the equation for price elasticity of demand, the iPhone would have a brand elasticity of 4.7, which means that Apple would lose almost 4.7 percent of iPhone sales for each corresponding 1 percent increase in price.

Due to the rise in cost for Netflix of obtaining contracts for movies, Netflix has compensated by increasing the price of its DVD mail-service. However, Netflix's mail-order subscription service is neither a necessity nor without heavy competition, hence it has a low PED. This has caused Netflix to see a drop in monthly subscribers to the service, as people switch to less expensive options or competitors.

Due to extreme weather changes, droughts and floods are causing bad harvest all around the world. This causes corn and wheat supply to decrease and food prices to increase. Food however has a very inelastic demand. Food is a necessity and therefore people are willing to purchase it at higher prices.