could be quantified. Most contemporary economists
hold the approach
taken by Edge worth and Pareto, in which demand has only ordinal
characteristics and in which indifference or preferences become central to
the analysis.
Much economic analysis focuses on the
relation between prices and
quantities demanded, the other variables being provisionally held constant.
At the various prices that could prevail in a market during some period of
time, different quantities of a good or service would be bought. Demand,
then, is considered as a list of prices and quantities, with one quantity for
each possible price. With price on the vertical
axis and quantity on the
horizontal axis, the demand curve slopes downward from left to right,
signifying that smaller quantities are bought at higher prices and lager
quantities are bought lower prices. The inverse relation between price and
quantity is usually called the law of demand. The law rests on two
foundations. One
is the theory of the consumer, the logic of which show
that the consumer responds to lower prices by buying more. The other
foundation is empirical, with innumerable
studies of demand in actual
markets having demonstrated the existence of downward-sloping demand
curves.
Exceptions to the law of demand are the curiosa of theorists. The best-
known exception Geffen effect — a consumer buys more, not less. Of a
commodity at higher prices when a negative income effect dominates over
the substitution effect.
Another is the Vein effect - some commodities are theoretically wanted
solely for their higher prices.
The higher these prices are, the more the use
of such commodities fulfills the requirements of conspicuous consumption,
and thus the stronger the demand for them.
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