Epipen, gasoline, salt, cigarettes, toilet paper, and life-saving drugs/surgeries are examples of _____ (inelastic, elastic) goods.

• The answer is inelastic.

These goods are all examples of products that have an inelastic demand. This means that consumers are less sensitive to price changes. In other words, if the price increases by a certain percentage, the quantity decrease will be smaller than the price increase. There are different reasons for consumers to have inelastic demand, though.

• Epipen is a product that injects an anti-allergen drug into a person having an allergic reaction. It can save lives, so consumers will still buy it if they are facing an emergency.
• Salt has an inelastic demand because it is a small part of the consumer budget. Since salt is cheap, it could increase significantly in price, and consumers would still purchase it.
• Gasoline has an inelastic demand because there are no other goods that can be purchased (called a substitute) to fuel most cars.
• Cigarettes have an inelastic demand because the people who purchase them are often addicted to smoking them, so they will still purchase them if they get more expensive.
• Toilet paper has an inelastic demand because it is a small part of the budget when calculating per unit price, but it also does not have many close substitutes.
• Life-saving drugs and surgeries have an inelastic demand because their consumers are often facing death and will still be willing to purchase if the price increases.