Monopoly (economics) - The Inverse Elasticity Rule

The Inverse Elasticity Rule

A monopoly chooses that price that maximizes the difference between total revenue and total cost. The basic markup rule can be expressed as (P − MC)/P = 1/PED. The markup rules indicate that the ratio between profit margin and the price is inversely proportional to the price elasticity of demand. The implication of the rule is that the more elastic the demand for the product the less pricing power the monopoly has.

Read more about this topic:  Monopoly (economics)

Famous quotes containing the words inverse, elasticity and/or rule:

    “Yet time and space are but inverse measures of the force of the soul. The spirit sports with time.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    “One of the reforms to be carried out during the incoming administration is a change in our monetary and banking laws, so as to secure greater elasticity in the forms of currency available for trade and to prevent the limitations of law from operating to increase the embarrassment of a financial panic.”
    —William Howard Taft (1857–1930)

    “The world is filled with the proverbs and acts and winkings of a base prudence, which is a devotion to matter, as if we possessed no other faculties than the palate, the nose, the touch, the eye and ear; a prudence which adores the Rule of Three, which never subscribes, which never gives, which seldom lends, and asks but one question of any project,—Will it bake bread?”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)