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Changes in Price Elasticities of Demand for Beef, Pork, and Broilers
Author(s) -
Tomek William G.
Publication year - 1965
Publication title -
american journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.949
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1467-8276
pISSN - 0002-9092
DOI - 10.2307/1236289
Subject(s) - economics , offset (computer science) , econometrics , period (music) , supply and demand , demand curve , price elasticity of demand , zoology , agricultural economics , mathematics , biology , microeconomics , physics , computer science , acoustics , programming language
The hypothesis that the demands for beef, pork, and broilers in the United States have become less elastic through time is examined. The slopes of the estimated demand relations (linear in arithmetic values) were flatter in period 2 (1956–1964) than in period 1 (1949–1956) for all three commodities. However, elasticities computed at the mean level of observations for each period differ not only because of changes in the slope and the level of the demand curve, but also because of changes in supply (hence movements along a demand curve). For beef and broilers, changes in demand were apparently more than offset by changes in supply in the period of analysis. Therefore, elasticities computed at the mean level of observations are less elastic in period 2. The estimated price elasticities for the most recent period are —.9 for beef and pork and —2.3 for broilers.