M2016 Economics SL Mr. Friedman

This article covers the topic of excise taxes in which the state of Massachusetts' government has tried to place an excise tax on tobacco in order to reduce the usage of it and improve people's health.

This article is about the price elasticity of the gas. It states the fact that even though people are unhappy about the increasing prices, they can't change their habits of consuming the same gas supply which totally means that gas is inelastic in this case and in order for them to change their consumption patterns, there has to be an even greater increase in the gas price

With gasoline prices in the U.S. approaching an average $3 a gallon, Americans are moaning about the rising cost, but so far they are resisting big changes in their gas-guzzling ways.

This article discusses how the drastic increase in price for a seat at the 2013 Super Bowl and the writer is saying that this is mainly because teams want to make the most out of every seat and people are still willing to pay the high price.

This article explains the change in price of Super Bowl ticket price in terms of Price elasticity of demand.

This article covers the responsiveness of demand change regarding the pricing of the tickets of the Super Bowl XLVIII

The average household income is increasing which means that the demand for self-employed workers is on the rise. As the income rises, the consumers are more willing to hire self-employed workers such as lawyers or plumbers more often. This means that the labour of these personally-hired workers is a normal good because when the income rises, the demand rises as opposed to an inferior good.

This article explains the correlation between the increase of average income of people and government budget spent on healthcare programs.

This article talks about the Obama care and how individuals including employers and employees will suffer the tax that will pay in the future. It is estimated that about 20% of the tax will be paid by companies or employers and 80% will be paid by the employees. This payment would all begin in 2018, and by 2025 the government is expected to make about $105-Billion.

This article talks about how the drop in gas prices (as mentioned in my blog log) has led to an increase in car sales. The cars aren't necessarily inefficient though, people are buying cars like the Nissan Leaf (Plug-in hybrid) and mini SUV's.

This article discusses how the music industry has been changing the price of music because people are only willing to buy music if it is cheap given that it is pleasurable to us but not necessary. It also talks about how CD sales are declining because of the ease of online digital music.

The article discusses about the Affordable Care Act and the excise tax it imposes. The medical device excise tax has been controversial since 2013, so Congress doesn't know whether to repeal it or not.

This article explains what has happened in the US market for cigarettes during the last couple of years! Also discusses what has happened with the invention of things such as E-cigarettes

This article talks about how the PED for different food types varies in the country Australia. The Rural industries research and development in Australia reveals that foods such as Milk, bread, fresh fruit and fresh vegetables have an inelastic demand. This therefore meaning consumers will continue to buy these products even when there is an increase in price. In this case the value of PED would be 1 Research and Development also showed that PED for meat products was more elastic in Australia than in other countries. As a result meaning, consumers in other countries will be more willing to absorb an increase in price.

This article talks about the idea behind Starbucks and how they increase their prices. It establishes a connection between PED and PES. It also talks about how we gone from not appreciating coffee to becoming a caffeine addicted economy.

This article focuses on the variable that influence the supply and demand of olive oil. the European Union produces more than 80% of all the olive oil in the world. This article tries to prove that the price of crude does not impact the supply of Olive oil. We also learn about the supply elasticity of oil.

Government imposed carbon taxes in Australia, in order to prevent the climate change. This will have the major influence on manufacturing and other business in Australia, especially the tourism. It is estimated the carbon taxes will "add $115 million a year to the bottom line costs of hotels and motels", due to the increase in additional costs such as energy bills, food, transport, linen and other expenses. The demand for the tourism in Australia will thus greatly decrease, as the expeneses will increase as well due to the large taxes imposed on the carbon "also Australia's carbon tax places tremendous pressure on Australian manufacturers and inevitably leads to job losses and business closures"

The prices of coffee will be rising soon in the $80 billion U.S. coffee industry due to the cost of arabica beans rising. According to Paul, the price elasticity of demand for coffee is very low because people will not substitute their drinks such as soda due to higher prices. Arabica beans are the most widely used beans in the coffee industry and they even accounted for 59 percent of the world's 153.3 million bags of coffee output last year.

The article that I bookmarked is focusing on coffee in the US Market. Although some say that the price of arabica beans are likely to flame, the suppliers of coffee are not worried. The reason is definitely that coffee is price inelastic. The article also give some insight into the consumer's point of view. When they are asked if coffee has another substitute, they rigidly say "NO!". Being aware of its addictive nature, Starbucks is calm that any price change wouldn't affect its revenue and actually it would get the benefit of such change since coffee is inelastic.

This article explains how the sizes of different packaged food categories change in relation to a variation in disposable income and answers questions like: "Do all categories benefit equally from a rise in income, or do some categories decline when incomes rise as consumers trade up to more premium products?" The article suggests how snack bars and baby food the most elastic and bread and pasta the least elastic and more facts.

This article basically explains what income elasticity is and why it is important. There is a lot of useful information here.

There is a new partnership to commercialize graphene. Supplies available were low, but now with the new jointed work, they are able to commercialize graphene and graphene technology. Graphene technology is going to help further research. Graphene is used in technology and can advance things that produce large amounts.

This article demonstrates elasticity of demand for oil. It also has a nice explanation of elasticity

Tutar, I very much agreed with you here. Gasoline is a great example of Inelastic demand in a real life situation. The price for Gasoline is very rigid, gosline is a necessity to many peoples lives.In this case an increase in price will mean an increase in revenue. There is a positive relationship between price and total revenue. From the supplier's viewpoint, this is a highly desirable situation because price and total revenue are directly related; an increase in price increases total revenue despite a fall in the quantity demanded. This inelastic demand for the suppliers is a highly desirable situation. An increase in price will increase total revenue despite a fall in the quantity demanded. So theoretically Oil companies could charge astronomical prices and get away with it !!

This article concerns the elasticity of oil supply falling due to the time it takes to acquire it and the difficulty to get it. More oil wells are needed and therefore makes the supply extremely slow because of the time it takes to drill. Because of this, the oil supply takes a long time to react to price change in the economy, making it less and less elastic.

This article discusses the previously strong position of cigarattes in economy and their place today. Cigarattes are considerd to be inelastic since they are highly addictive. However over the lst couple of years their elasticity have göne form -0.3 to -0.8. The article discusses how E-cigarattes have become increasingly popular over the years. The author states "E-cigarettes, however, could undermine the cross elasticities that Big Tobacco firms enjoy between traditional cigarettes and smokeless tobacco" and discuss cross elaticities as well as price elasticities of tobacco in this article.