Short-cut Demand Elasticities and Other Convenient Approaches to Consumer Demand

This book provides answers to analysts’ need to know about elasticities of demand, with a unique two-track approach. The first gives a self-contained, non-technical rendition, accessible to those with limited background. The second track contains the underlying theory, derivations, and some more advanced material. Subsequent chapters deal with the demand for food and other groups of goods, the system-wide approach, and the demand side of EDM and CGE models. This convenient source book will be valuable to students, consultants, business economists and government policy analysts. Clarity of exposition and economic intuition is emphasised throughout.

“In this remarkable book, the authors bridge the gap between sophisticated consumer demand theory and the practical world of economic modeling. Their guidance will be invaluable to anyone aiming to shed light on the economic impact of public policies.”

Thomas W. Hertel, Distinguished Professor and Executive Director, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Purdue University

 “The elasticity of demand is a key parameter in economics - whether for micro studies or large-scale models. This book illuminates on short-cut approaches for measuring this elasticity and provides derivations and applications. It is a valuable resource for both students and seasoned economists.”

Paul Burke, Professor and Head, Arndt-Corden Department of Economics and Deputy Director, Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU College of Law, Governance and Policy, Australian National University

 “This book endears itself to me with its honest approach to determining elasticities for use in policy analysis. In Chapter 1, it tells us about the rule of one half: if you can’t do any better, set own price elasticities for household demands for broadly defined commodities at -0.5. Then through ten chapters, Ken Clements and his co-authors demonstrate that you can do better by combining economic theory with relatively straightforward econometrics. The book deserves wide readership among applied economic modellers who want to take their field forward by supplementing judgement with statistical evidence.”

Peter Dixon, AO, Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University

Kenneth Clements has been at the University of Western Australia since 1981 as a Professor of Economics and Emeritus Professor. He has a PhD from the University of Chicago, and has expertise in international finance, monetary economics and applied microeconomics. His research has been supported by a series of grants from BHP and the Australian Research Council, and has been published in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Journal of Business, Marketing Science, Health Economics, European Economic Review, International Economic Review, Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, among others. Cambridge University Press published two of Ken’s  books, Economics and Marijuana (with Xueyan Zhao) and Currencies, Commodities and Consumption. He is Distinguished Fellow of the Economic Society; Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia; received the Austin Holmes Award from the WA Branch of the Economic Society of Australia; and was awarded a Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council.

Haiyan Liu is a Senior Economic Forecaster at the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage (DPLH) in West Australia (WA). Her work involves modelling for land-use forecasting and the integration of land-use and transport models. Before joining DPLH, Haiyan held the positions of Analyst in the Energy Markets Division at the WA Economic Regulation Authority and Transport Modeller at the WA Department of Transport. She has experience in monitoring the wholesale electricity market and the economic evaluation of infrastructure projects. With a background in electrical engineering, Haiyan worked at the East China Architectural Design and Research Institute on major projects before moving to Australia. She graduated from the University of Western Australia (PhD and Masters) and Tongji University (Bachelors). Her research interest is the application of economic modelling to inform policy and other decision making and has published in Applied Economics. 

Marc Jim Mariano is a Senior Research Scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO, Australia). His work involves the development of state-of-the-art computable general equilibrium (CGE) models, and their application in economic impact assessment of industry projects and government policies at the regional, state and national levels. Before joining CSIRO, Marc was an Associate Director at KPMG where he provided advisory services to private and public clients based on advanced economic modelling. He has taught at the University of the Philippines and was a research economist at the Philippine Rice Research Institute. Marc has published a number of journal articles. His research interests include economywide modelling, climate change analysis, circular economy, energy transitions, consumer demand models and household distributional analysis. Marc graduated from Monash University (PhD), University of New England (Masters) and University of the Philippines Los Banos (Bachelors). He has received several scholarships including the Australian Leadership Award from AusAID, the Dean’s Postgraduate Research Excellence Award, Donald Cochrane Postgraduate Research Scholarship, and International Postgraduate Research Scholarship from Monash University. Marc was awarded the Best Master’s Thesis Award from the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society and was recognised as an Outstanding R&D Staff at the Philippine Rice Research Institute.

Eliyathamby Antony Selvanathan (Selva) is the Director of the Economics Policy Analysis Program (EPAP) and Professor of Econometrics at Griffith University, Queensland, Australia. He has also taught previously at the University of Jaffna (Sri Lanka), Murdoch University (Australia) and the University of Western Australia. Selva was educated at the University of Jaffna, University of Bucharest (Romania), Murdoch University and the University of Western Australia. He is one of the authors of the best-selling textbook in Australasia, Business Statistics, published by Cengage, currently in the 8th edition. His interests include applied econometrics, tourism economics, consumer demand models and stochastic index numbers. He has published nine research monographs and well over 100 articles in journals such as Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Econometrics, Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, Review of Economics and Statistics, Energy Economics, Journal of Travel Research and Tourism Economics. Selva has received several research and teaching awards, including the Minister’s Awards for Outstanding Contribution to Improving Literacy and/or Numeracy - Queensland state winner, Pro-Vice Chancellor’s Excellence in Research Award (Research Supervision), Griffith Awards for Excellence in Teaching – Innovation Across the Institution, STARDS group, and the Inaugural University of Western Australia 75th Anniversary Distinguished Teaching Award.

Saroja Selvanathan is a Professor of Econometrics at Griffith University, Queensland, Australia, and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy. She has also taught previously at the University of Jaffna (Sri Lanka), Murdoch University (Australia) and the University of Western Australia. Saroja was educated at the University of Jaffna, Murdoch University and the University of Western Australia. Her research interests include consumer demand, time series analysis, tourism economics and applied econometrics. She has published seven research monographs and over 100 journal articles plus book chapters. Saroja’s publications have appeared in journals such as Review of Economics and Statistics, Energy Economics, Resource Economics, Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Economic Modelling, Journal of Travel Research, Applied Economics, Tourism Analysis and Tourism Economics. She is a co-author of the Australian best-selling textbook, Business Statistics, published by Cengage, currently in the 8th edition. Saroja has received several university-wide research and teaching awards, including the Vice Chancellor’s Excellence in Research Award (Research Supervision), Griffith Awards for Excellence in Teaching – Group Learning and Teaching Citation, and Griffith Awards for Excellence in Teaching – Innovation Across the Institution, STARDS group.

George Verikios is Integrated Assessment Modelling Lead at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO, Australia) and Adjunct Professor of Economics at Griffith University. He is an expert in economic modelling and has built, overseen and contributed to the development of many global and national economic models, and their application to the evaluation of diverse topics such as the economics of climate change, pandemic outbreaks, the circular economy, tax policy, trade liberalisation and income distribution. George has consulting, research and training experience in the university, public and private sectors. He has published over 30 articles in journals such as Economic Modelling, The World Economy, Applied Economics, Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Journal of Asia Pacific Economy, Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Journal of Cleaner Production and Economic Record.