Group items tagged

This article goes over the supply elasticities of many products seeing shortages after the hurricane in New York and New Jersey. It talks about the inelasticity of the PES for hotel rooms. The determinant for this is time period. More hotel rooms are needed, but they can't be built in a week. The article also talks about the price of gas, and how the demand for gas is almost perfectly inelastic, meaning that gas can be sold for a huge price. The article asks the question, should the scarce resources go to those who can pay the most for them, or those in line first? This goes with the moral question asked in the discussion of the reading.

Gas being an inelastic product, has a small change in demand if the price is increased. It was a good time to increase the price of oil because "The improvement in the nation's economic health has increased demand for oil" so there would be an increase in revenue if the price was increased.

For the past century or so, cigarettes have been an inelastic product. Due to their addictive properties, changes in the price have had a minimal effect on market demand, allowing tobacco companies to rake in boat loads of cash. In the early 1900s, big tobacco hit its peak in sales with the ability to advertise in color and through whole new mediums (newspaper, radio, TV, etc.) It was at this time that the American public and many other nations, although I don't which, started to recognize the dangers of smoking and the government begin creating restrictions. Though cigarrettes now have prices that fluctuate like gas, can't have ads on radio or television, and can't be sold to minors, consumer demand has still remained for them because of how powerful the addictive effects of nicotine are on the human brain. However, now there is an alternative to conventional smoking which replaces deadly secondhand smoke with clean water vapor. E-cigarettes are a trend that is sure to build demand and will cigarettes and cigars as elastic as a rubber band.

The strong dollar and increasing competition present a barrier for McDonald's effort to increase its profit. McDonald's used to have inelastic demand, since it did not have much competition and changes in price would not affect total revenue. If they wanted to increase total revenue, they just raised the prices. However, nowadays, as competition takes place, their demand is becoming more and more elastic, because of the more substitutes offered by competition.

In this article it is about "how the excise tax on gasoline and diesel fuel has been the main source of funds for building and maintaining the nation's roadways. It has paid for most of the four million road miles currently in service" By imposing taxes, governments obtain certain tax revenue which is used for supporting national infrastructure (roads), public services and subsidies for other things. But gas tax is not sufficient anymore. So, there are myriad discussions across political fields how to alter current tax policy. There are several options: taxing the miles (the question is how to tax the miles) toll roads (but they would hardly replace the gasoline tax), adjusting tax to inflation, taxing oil instead of gasoline or taxing cars. It seems resolving this issue is a hard nut to crack for the U.S. government.

This article discusses the controversies involved in the sale of wildlife and a global ban in the trade of a species when it is threatened with over-exploitation. The author relates to trade bans as something that do more harm than good. This is perfectly illustrated by the following quote: "Combine inelastic demand, lack of substitutes, scarcity and open access to habitats with a trade ban, Dr Conrad argues, and a black market will flourish." Some of these conclusions also relate to arguments against protection we did in class, such as the limited options that consumers and firms have.