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Few sellers into a market like the price going down, and labour prices are famously downwards inelastic, but price wars are a thing and many markets have an exp
by chalst 4y ago
Few sellers into a market like the price going down, and labour prices are famously downwards inelastic, but price wars are a thing and many markets have an expectation that prices will go down, e.g., cloud computing costs in recent years. It's a mistake to try to completely detach your understanding of inflation from the commercial imperatives in specific markets.
- QuarterReptile 4y agoI would venture that sellers overwhelmingly prefer stable prices to increasing prices. Rising prices require adjustment, which requires resources, and makes you the focus of customers' ire for what amounted to trying to keep things running the same. Meanwhile, any seller raising prices is setting up for a short- or long-term substitution effect away from their products.
- chalst 4y agoIncreasing prices in a market means increased turnover for those who sell into that market. You can easily find examples where increasing prices are worse for sellers than price stability, e.g., if increased costs eat up more than the new income or if the price increases happen in the context of a shrinking market, but as a rule price increases show that the market favours sellers over buyers.