DEMAND ECONOMICS AND EXPERIMENTAL-PSYCHOLOGY

Connections can be made between economics and experimental psychology by viewing food pellets, water, drugs, and other such rewards for instrumental responding as economic goods or commodities. Several parallels are demonstrated between consumption in the marketplace and consumption in the laboratory by individual animals and humans. Many of the parallels appear in the context of two basic concepts from microeconomics: the demand law and elasticity of demand. The demand law refers to a decrease in total consumption of a commodity as the price of that commodity increases. Elasticity of demand refers to the responsiveness of consumption to a change in price. The abundant similarities between marketplace and laboratory suggest that closer relations between economists and experimental psychologists would be mutually beneficial. Copyright © 1979 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.