Question

On October 1, 2009, the Nintendo Wii's Japanese price dropped from ¥25,000 to ¥20,000. In the three months after the price drop, Japanese sales of the Wii were approximately 1,040,000. Twelve months earlier, over the same interval at the high price, sales totaled 890,000. Using the midpoint method, what is the absolute value of the price elasticity of demand of a Wii console? Is it an elastic or inelastic good?

Answer 1

B) 0.7; inelastic

Step-by-step explanation:

The computation of the absolute value of the price elasticity of demand is shown below:

Elasticity is

= [(Sales - prior sales) ÷ ( Sales + prior sales) ÷ 2] ÷ [(price - dropped price) ÷ (price - dropped price) ÷ 2

= [(1,040,000 - 890,000) ÷ (1,040,000 + 890,000) ÷ 2] ÷ [(25,000 - 20,000) ÷ (25,000 + 20,000) ÷ 2]

= (150,000 ÷ 965,000) ÷ (5,000 ÷ 22,500)

= 0.15 ÷ 0.22

= 0.7

It is less than one so the demand is inelastic