Talk:Law of demand

Non-exceptions

A listed assumption is that specifically normal goods are being dealt with, but "exceptions" lists luxury goods like diamonds and cars. Nobody grabs a new car at every paycheck. Another expressly listed assumption is that consumers aren't expecting price changes, then an "exception" is that consumers expect the price to be different in the future. Things that aren't exceptions shouldn't be listed as such. User:Non-wiki user who doesn't know how to sign things

History of the Law

Just curious... wouldn't it be a good thing to have a small section that mentioned when this was first put forth as a law of economics? Was it Adam Smith? Was it mentioned before any of the classical economists? Did one of the Physiocrats provide an early law of Demand? 67.135.233.69 (talk) 21:36, 29 July 2011 (UTC)

Aggregate Consumer Demand

"It has been observed in preceding discussions that both individuals and market demand curve slopes downward, from left to right. " While aggregate consumer demand curves may well generally slope downward - the slope is not "smooth" the curve is certain to have kinks, regions of rising demand, flat spots, curves and twists. --Jgard5000 (talk) 03:00, 27 September 2009 (UTC)jgard5000

Actually, we expect in most cases it will be pretty smooth and monotonic. Sure, not for everything, but "certain to have..." is much to strong. CRETOG8(t/c) 03:51, 27 September 2009 (UTC)

likely to have although a smooth curve may be fair representation.--Jgard5000 (talk) 13:49, 1 October 2009 (UTC) If you assume simple linear demand functions the resulting market demand function will likely be a "piecewise linear function."Binger & Hoffman, Microeconomics with Calculus, 2nd ed. (Addison-Wesley 1998) at 154. As you continue to add individuals the segments atributable to any one individual will become smaller or disapper while the number of segments will likely increase to the point that from a distance the curve appears smooth - fractal geometry.--Jgard5000 (talk) 17:39, 1 October 2009 (UTC)jgard5000 it remains the case that the curve is not smooth and is not differentiable at evey point.--Jgard5000 (talk) 17:39, 1 October 2009 (UTC)jgard5000

law of demand

from last 10 years we can see in Indian Economy the education cost increases and despite of it education demand has also increases so do u think that the law of demand is violated here!!!!!

i m doing the c.s. this was askd by our faculty of eco. to get the solution i cant get any answer plzzz do answer

I suggest that in India, as elsewhere, education is both a status symbol and a good worth purchasing even at a higher price in expectation of an even greater increase in the 'value' of the educated person. Dawright12 (talk) 12:39, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Prestige goods vs Status symbols

I think the difference between these two categories is negligible and the two paragraphs could well be merged. Dawright12 (talk) 12:36, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Graphs, Changes in Demand, & Expectations

This article's broad scope provides a basic framework that could be expanded into a very good treatment of this topic, but it needs a lot more work to get to that point. In particular:

1. As noted in one of the boxes at the top of the article, it is badly in need of specific citations for verification to meet even minimum Wikipedia standards.
   1. Currently, the article contains only 3 footnotes, which is inadequate for almost any significant article, much less one this long. To meet verification standards, essentially every paragraph should contain at least 1 footnote—and often, several—to a specific, authoritative source.
   2. The bibliography contains only 2 separate sources, neither of which is accessible to readers. (The link leads to a publisher's Web site, which it appears just markets the texts; it doesn't provide access to them.)
2. The article would be significantly improved by adding demand curve diagrams to illustrate many of the points, especially shifts in the demand curve vs. movements along it. (See the following point.)
3. Using "expansion or contraction in demand" is definitely not standard terminology for referring to a movement along a given demand curve in response to a change in price, holding all other factors constant. This is admittedly a very confusing point, but an absolutely basic one. We have to distinguish between 2 entirely different ways in which "demand" (D) can change: a movement along the curve vs. a shift of the entire curve. The correct terminology, which is used almost unanimously by U.S. college-level texts, is:
   1. Movements along the D curve are caused by a change in price alone, holding all other factors (population, income, etc.) constant. Such a movement along the curve is referred to as either an "increase in quantity demanded" (in response to a price decrease), "decrease in quantity demanded" (in response to a price increase), or in general, "change in quantity demanded" (which refers to both cases). Note especially the presence of the key word "quantity," because we're focusing on how quantity demanded changes when only the price changes, and everything else remains the same.
   2. But when the demand curve shifts in response to a change in one of the nonprice determinants of demand, the shift is referred to as either an "increase in demand" (meaning the demand curve shifts outward, or to the right), "decrease in demand" (the curve shifts inward toward the origin, i.e., to the left), or in general, a "change in demand." In this case, the key word "quantity" is missing, because the focus is on the whole curve, not any particular quantity.
   3. It is absolutely essential to understand that the law of demand addresses only changes in quantity demanded (i.e., movements along a given demand curve). The law does not apply at all to changes in demand (i.e., shifts of the entire demand curve).
      1. Failing to distinguish clearly between movements along a given demand curve and shifts of the demand curve is a very common error and often leads to confusion or misunderstanding.
      2. The terminology is definitely confusing at first, but the presence or absence of the word "quantity" is the key to distinguishing between the 2 cases.
4. "Expectations about future prices" is included as an exception to the law of demand, but it's also included as a (nonprice) determinant of demand. It can't be both—it can only be one or the other.
   1. Expectations about future prices should be treated as a determinant of demand, not an exception to the law of demand.
   2. If expectations about future prices were an exception, then expectations about future income should be, too, as should expectations about the weather and consumer preferences.
   3. Expectations and the other determinants of demand are a completely different concept from Veblen and Giffen goods, where some characteristic of the goods themselves lead to an increase in quantity demanded when price increases.
5. Consumer tastes and preferences are listed twice as determinants of demand under slightly different names. Those 2 factors should be combined into 1 determinant.

--Jackftwist (talk) 17:58, 29 April 2010 (UTC)

trade

why are people better off with trading? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.169.241.61 (talk) 17:24, 1 March 2014 (UTC)

people can't be better off without trading. Trading is essentially needed for today's survival cause it helps it helps a person to offer out his produce that might be too much for him to consume to the public and also he can get what he lacks from others who have also offered their products to the public. Ethoja (talk) 11:13, 9 January 2019 (UTC)

There is no "law of demand"

There is no (uncompensated) law of demand, at least not in microeconomics. There is only the compensated law of demand. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.175.2.17 (talk) 14:09, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Utility

Is utility actually active in the real world. Ethoja (talk) 11:14, 9 January 2019 (UTC)

Law of demand

In microeconomics, the law of demand is a fundamental principle which states that there is an inverse relationship between price and quantity demanded. In other words, "conditional on all else being equal, as the price of a good increases (↑), quantity demanded will decrease (↓); conversely, as the price of a good decreases (↓), quantity demanded will increase (↑)".[1] Alfred Marshall worded this as: "When we say that a person's demand for anything increases, we mean that he will buy more of it than he would before at the same price, and that he will buy as much of it as before at a higher price".[2] The law of demand, however, only makes a qualitative statement in the sense that it describes the direction of change in the amount of quantity demanded but not the magnitude of change. 203.153.62.26 (talk) 13:39, 18 June 2022 (UTC)

Inferior goods

Voice 103.146.175.230 (talk) 09:48, 30 December 2022 (UTC)