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Homework answers / question archive / Suppose Anne only consumes food and clothes, and she spends 20% of her income on food

Suppose Anne only consumes food and clothes, and she spends 20% of her income on food

Economics

Suppose Anne only consumes food and clothes, and she spends 20% of her income on food. Assume that Anne's income elasticity of demand for food is 0.6, what's her income elasticity of demand for clothes?

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The responsiveness of percentage change in quantity demanded to a percentage change in income is known as income elasticity of demand.

Here, it is given by:

  • Income elasticity of demand = Percentage change in quantity demanded of food / Percentage change in income

or

  • ef = (Δ F / F) / ( Δ I / I) where
    • F = food demanded
    • I = Income
    • ΔF = change in the value of food demanded
    • Δ = change in income
    • ef = income elasticity of food

Given that the elasticity is 0.6 and 20% is spent of food, we have:

  • ef = ( ΔF / I) / (1/ (F / I)
  • 0.6 = ( Δ F / I) / (1 / 0.2)
  • Δ F = 0.12 Δ I

Now, we know that Anne consumes ONLY food and clothes. If Anne spends 0.12 of her changed income on food, it means that she will spend 0.88 on cloth.

So, we have:

  • Δ C = 0.88 Δ I
  • Δ C / Δ I = 0.88

Now, elasticity of clothes is:

  • ec = (Δ C / Δ I ) / (Y / Dc)

Since, 20% of the income is spend on food, the remaining 80% is spent on clothes. So, we have:

  • ec = ( 1 / 0.8) / Δ C / Δ
  • ec = 0.88 / 0.8
  • ec = 1.1

Therefore, the income elasticity of clothes is 1.1.