Price Elasticity
A measure of the responsiveness an economic variable is to a change in another variable, such as the relationship between lowering the price of a product and seeing how much more of it will sell as a result.
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Origin
Alfred Marshall, the British economist at Cambridge University, formalized the concept in his landmark 1890 text Principles of Economics, providing the first precise mathematical formula for measuring demand responsiveness. Earlier writers such as Jules Dupuit had described related ideas qualitatively, but Marshall gave them rigorous analytical form. His terminology — elasticity — has remained in use ever since.
Updated February 22, 2026