Suppose you want to find estimates of the elasticities of demand (own price, income, cross-price) for orange juice. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has a Web site that provides estimates of demand elasticities for hundreds of food products (from apples to yogurt) for dozens of countries (from Albania to Zimbabwe). Starting from (www.ers.usda.gov/Data/Elasticities/ ), you are four clicks away from the following estimates of demand elasticities for orange juice in the United States: income elasticity = 2.212; own price elasticity = 1.391; cross-price elasticity for apple juice = 0.908. Here are the clicks: (1) Demand Elasticities from Literature; (2) Choose Country; Choose Commodity; (3) Cross Commodity; (4) Submit.
It’s important to note two things about the reported elasticities. First, the regular price elasticity is reported as a negative number and labeled own price elasticity for Marshallian Demand. Second, the reported expenditure elasticity is similar to the income elasticity, with the denominator of the elasticity equal to the percentage change in total consumer expenditure (versus percentage change in income).