Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A short and intuitive proof of Marshall's Rule

  • Exposita Note
  • Published:
Economic Theory Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Summary.

When the price of an input factor to a production process increases, then the optimal output level declines and the input is substituted by other factors. Marshall's rule is a formula that determines the own-price elasticity for one factor as a weighted sum of the elasticities of output market demand and factor substitution. This note offers a proof for Marshall's rule that is significantly shorter and somewhat more intuitive than existing derivations.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sonderforschungsbereich 504, Department of Economics, University of Mannheim, L 13, 15, 68131 Mannheim, GERMANY (e-mail: ewerhart@sfb504.uni-mannheim.de) , , , , , , DE

    Christian Ewerhart

Authors
  1. Christian Ewerhart
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

Received: February 19, 2001; revised version: April 3, 2002

RID="*"

ID="*" I thank Charalambos Aliprantis, John Moore, Patrick Schmitz, and the anonymous referee for helpful suggestions. Support by the German Academic Exchange Service is gratefully acknowledged.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ewerhart, C. A short and intuitive proof of Marshall's Rule. Econ Theory 22, 415–418 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00199-002-0291-x

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00199-002-0291-x

Search

Navigation