inelastic demand
Necessity-driven purchasing behavior
Inelastic demand describes a market situation where quantity purchased changes little regardless of price shifts.
When demand is inelastic, consumers keep buying even as prices rise—typically for necessities like insulin, gasoline, or electricity.
Demand for cigarettes is notoriously inelastic among addicted smokers.
The opposite is elastic demand, where price changes strongly affect purchasing behavior.
- necessitiesWhat you cannot lack
- basic needsRequirements for survival
- essentialsIndispensable items or elements
- life or deathMaximally high stakes
- gasolineRefined petroleum vehicle fuel
insulin · cigarettes · addiction · utilities · electricity · medication · fixed · rigid · unresponsive · price · consumption · tobacco · fuel · healthcare · must have · water · rent · staples
- demandneed, want, desire, request, requirement
- microeconomicssupply, price, market, equilibrium, consumer choice
- Shopping Behaviorsbargain hunting, comparison shopping, impulse buy, coupon use, bulk buying
inelastic, demand, elastic, elasticity, inelasticity, elastically, demands, demanded, demanding