Elasticity Of Supply In Economics

By | July 17, 2025

Elasticity Of Supply In Economics – Elasticity of supply is an economic term that refers to the sensitivity of the supply of a good or service to changes in other economic variables such as the price of the good, the price of related goods and expectations of sellers, etc.

Elasticity of supply is the response of the quantity supplied of a product to a change in one of the variables on which supply depends. According to basic economic theory, the supply of a good increases with an increase in price and decreases with a decrease in price.

Elasticity Of Supply In Economics

Elasticity Of Supply In Economics

“The elasticity of supply is defined as the percentage change in quantity supplied divided by the percentage change in price.”

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“The elasticity of supply is the ratio between the percentage change in quantity supplied and the percentage change in price.”

A term that measures the rate at which quantity demanded changes due to changes in price is known as price elasticity of supply. It measures the relationship between changes in quantity supplied and changes in the price of the good.

According to this method, elasticity of supply can be defined as the ratio between “percentage change in quantity supplied” and “percentage change in price”.

Suppose a seller offers to sell 500 units of an item when the price is Rs. 10 per unit, while the price drops to Rs. 5 per unit, only 250 units offered. then,

Supply And Demand

Geometrically, the elasticity of supply depends on the origin of the supply curve. Assuming that the supply curve is a straight line and positively sloped, the geometric method measures the elasticity of supply as follows:

Supply is said to be perfectly elastic when a small increase in price will cause the supply to go to infinity, while a small decrease in price will cause the supply to go to zero. It is also known as infinite elasticity.

Suppose the item price is Rs. 10 and the supply is 50 units. Since the price is Rs. When it increases to 15, the supply increases to infinity.

Elasticity Of Supply In Economics

In the figure, the X-axis represents quantity and the Y-axis represents price. SS is the supply curve. Initial supply at price P is Q units. When the price increases slightly, it leads to an increase in the supply by a large quantity, i.e. Q1. Thus, it represents perfectly elastic supply.

Law Of Supply In Economics: Definition & Examples

When supply does not change with a change in price (whether it falls or rises), supply is said to be perfectly inelastic. This means that the supply remains constant against any price value in the market. This is represented by a straight line parallel to the vertical axis.

Suppose the item price is Rs. 10 and the offer is 200 units. Price Rs. increases to 20, the supply remains constant at 200 units. This means that the supply is completely inelastic.

In the figure, the X-axis shows quantity and the Y-axis shows price. SS is the supply curve. At a price of P, the quantity supplied is Q units. As the price rises to P1, there is no effect on quantity supplied. It remains constant at the initial quantity Q. Thus, it indicates that supply is perfectly inelastic.

When the change in the supply of a good is in the same ratio as the change in price, it is known as uniform elastic supply.

The Elasticity Of Supply Meaning, Types And Methods

Suppose the price of an item is Rs. 50 and the quantity supplied in a particular market is 200 units. Since the price is Rs. increases to 55, supply increases to 220 units. It implies uniform elastic supply.

In the figure, the X-axis represents quantity and the Y-axis represents price. SS is the supply curve. When the price is P, the quantity supplied is Q units. When the price rises to P1, the quantity supplied to Q1 also increases by the same proportion. That is why it is known as uniform elastic supply.

Relatively elastic supply occurs when the proportional change in supply is greater than the proportional change in price. This means that a small change in price will cause a large change in supply. It is also known as highly elastic supply and more than uniformly elastic supply.

Elasticity Of Supply In Economics

Suppose the item price is Rs. 50 and the quantity supplied is 200 units. When the price rises to Rs.55, the supply increases to 250 units. This means that the offer is relatively elastic.

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In the figure, the X-axis represents quantity and the Y-axis represents price. SS is the supply curve. When the price is P, the quantity supplied is Q units. As the price rises to P1, the quantity supplied also increases to Q1, but by a larger amount. Thus, it indicates a relatively elastic supply.

Supply is said to be relatively inelastic when the proportional change in quantity supplied is less than the proportional change in price. This means that a large change in price leads to a small change in delivered quantity.

Suppose the item price is Rs. 50 and the quantity supplied is 200 units. Since the price is Rs. increases to 70, the supply increases to 220 units. It indicates that the supply is relatively inelastic.

In the figure, the X-axis shows quantity and the Y-axis shows price. SS is the supply curve. When the price is P, the quantity supplied is Q units. When the price rises to P1, the supply also increases to Q1 units by a smaller proportion than the price. It indicates a relatively volatile supply.

Price Elasticity Of Supply (pes)

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pinterest Share on WhatsApp Share on Linkedin Share on Telegram Share on email Price elasticity measures the response of the supply of a good or service to a change in the market price. According to basic economic theory, the supply of a good will increase when the price increases. Conversely, the supply of a product will decrease when the price falls.

There is also price elasticity of demand. This measures how much the quantity demanded is affected by a change in price. Overall, price elasticity measures how much the supply or demand for a product changes based on a given price change. Elastic means that the product is considered sensitive to price changes. Elastic means that the product is not sensitive to price movements.

In a free market, producers compete with each other for profit. Because profits are never constant over time or across goods, entrepreneurs shift resources and labor toward goods that are more profitable and away from less profitable goods. This leads to an increase in the supply of high-value goods and a decrease in the supply of low-value goods.

Elasticity Of Supply In Economics

Economists refer to trends in price and quantity as related to the law of supply. For example, suppose that consumers begin to demand more oranges and fewer apples. There are more dollar bids for oranges and less for apples, causing the price of oranges to rise and the price of apples to fall. Fruit growers, seeing the change in demand, decide to grow more oranges and fewer apples because this can lead to higher profits.

Price Elasticity Of Supply Calculator

There are five types of price elasticity of supply, including perfectly and relatively elastic, unit elastic, and perfectly and relatively elastic. Here is an example of each of the five price elasticities of a supply curve:

A perfectly elastic supply is when the PES formula equals zero. This means that the delivered quantity does not change when the price changes. Examples include products that have a limited quantity, such as land or paintings by dead artists. For example, the amount of gold on earth is limited and so is the number of bitcoins that can ever be mined. Consequently, at some point the supply cannot increase regardless of the price.

For a relatively inelastic supply, the PES is between zero and one. This means that the percentage change in quantity supplied is less than the percentage change in price. Capital assets include nuclear power, which takes a long time given the construction, technical know-how and lengthy start-up process for facilities.

A unit elastic supply has a PES of one, where the quantity supplied changes by a percentage equal to the change in price.

The Importance Of Elasticity Of Supply

Multiple price elasticity Supply means that the supply is relatively elastic, where the quantity supplied changes by a greater percentage than the price change. An example would be a product that is easy to manufacture and distribute, such as a fidget spinner. Resources to build more spinners are readily available, and the overall cost of increasing or decreasing production would be minimal.

The PES is infinite for perfectly elastic supply, where the quantity supplied at a given price is unlimited, but no quantity can be supplied at any other price. There are virtually no real-life examples of this, where even a small change in price would prevent or deny product manufacturers from supplying a single product.

How much will the supply of oranges increase or decrease the supply of apples? These answers depend on the price elasticity of supply for each fruit. If oranges have a very high price elasticity, the supply increases dramatically. On the other hand, apples may have low price elasticity of demand, meaning that supply will not decrease dramatically.

Elasticity Of Supply In Economics

What actually affects price elasticity? There are a number of factors, among them quantity

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