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In economics, inferior goods are those goods the demand for which falls with increase in income of the consumer. So, there is an inverse relationship between income of the consumer and the demand for inferior goods. [1] There are many examples of inferior goods, including cheap cars, public transit options, payday lending, and
If precondition #1 is changed to "The goods in question must be so inferior that the income effect is greater than the substitution effect" then this list defines necessary and sufficient conditions. The last condition is a condition on the buyer rather than the goods itself, and thus the phenomenon is also called a "Giffen behavior".
Figure 3: with an increase of income, demand for normal good X 2 rises while, demand for inferior good X 1 falls. The figure on the right (figure 3), shows the consumption patterns of the consumer of two goods X 1 and X 2, the prices of which are p 1 and p 2 respectively, where B1 and B2 are the budget lines and I 1 and I 2 are the indifference ...
If the good is an inferior good, then the income effect will offset in some degree the substitution effect. If the income effect for an inferior good is sufficiently strong, the consumer will buy less of the good when it becomes less expensive. This is also known as a Giffen good (commonly believed to be a rarity).
The income effect on a normal good is negative, so if its price decreases, the consumer's purchasing power or income increases. The reverse holds when the price increases and purchasing power or income decreases. An example of inferior goods is instant noodles.
At low levels of income, demand for energy or other goods increases very rapidly. However, as income rises further, consumption requirements (e.g. for food or energy) are increasingly satisfied. In addition, consumption patterns shift toward services rather than goods, which require fewer commodities to produce.
For inferior goods, the Engel curve has a negative gradient. That means that as the consumer has more income, they will buy less of the inferior good because they are able to purchase better goods. For goods with a Marshallian demand function generated from a utility function of Gorman polar form, the Engel curve is linear.
Inferior goods with negative income elasticity, assume negative slopes for their Engel curves. In the case of food, the Engel curve is concave downward with a positive but decreasing slope. [9] [8] Engel argues that food is a normal good, yet the share of household's budget spent on food falls as income increases, making food a necessity. [4] [8]