Giffen good

English edit

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Giffen good

Etymology edit

Named after Scottish economist Robert Giffen (1837–1910), who was attributed as the author of this idea by Alfred Marshall in his book Principles of Economics.^[1]

Noun edit

Giffen good (plural Giffen goods)

(economics) A postulated inferior good which people consume more of as only the price rises. It has a positive price elasticity of demand.
- 2008, Libby Rittenberg, Principles of Microeconomics, Flat World Knowledge, →ISBN, page 182:
  To qualify as a Giffen good, a good must be inferior and must have an income effect strong enough to overcome the substitution effect. The example often cited of a possible Giffen good is the potato during the Irish famine of 1845–1849.

Translations edit

a good with positive price elasticity of demand

Russian: това́р Ги́ффена m (továr Gíffena)

References edit

^ Alfred Marshall (1895) Principles of Economics:
As Mr.Giffen has pointed out, a rise in the price of bread makes so large a drain on the resources of the poorer labouring families and raises so much the marginal utility of money to them, that they are forced to curtail their consumption of meat and the more expensive farinaceous foods: and, bread being still the cheapest food which they can get and will take, they consume more, and not less of it.

[1] Alfred Marshall (1895) Principles of Economics:
As Mr.Giffen has pointed out, a rise in the price of bread makes so large a drain on the resources of the poorer labouring families and raises so much the marginal utility of money to them, that they are forced to curtail their consumption of meat and the more expensive farinaceous foods: and, bread being still the cheapest food which they can get and will take, they consume more, and not less of it.

[1]