Now that we know the sign of the own price elasticity of demand, we need to think about the meaning of the number itself.

   Suppose you are told that the own price elasticity of demand, , is 0.5 as stated in the expression to the left. What does this mean?

   Consider the expression, which tells us what we currently know. With a little simple rearranging, we have the following.

  


   So, = 0.5 means that the percentage change in quantity demanded will be one-half as large as the percentage change in price and in the opposite direction.

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