decided to increase the price of a bowl of pho from VND10,000 to
VND15,000. A year later the price rose to VND20,000. This second price
increase was accompanied by improvements in service.
Recently, the owner renovated his restaurant, installed an aircon system,
and introduced 24-hour service. The price of a bowl of pho rose to
VND24,000. Too expensive, you may say, the owner must be a bad
businessman. But Quick Pho, which hasn't lost customers, is thriving. In
fact, the owner considered each price increase very carefully. He knows
that if he arbitrarily raises prices, he will lose customers. But his experience
tells him that an improvement in service will attract and retain customers.
He thereby must determine how price should reflect improvements in
service. Based on his experience he knows that every time he raises prices,
demand will fall unless accompanied by better service. 'When he counted
the number of bowl he sells every day, he was collecting data. By
calculating that his daily sales would not suffer, he was estimating demand
change. Finally, he predicted the increased price, which is 24,000 dongs.
Though he was not aware of it, the owner of Quick Pho was using one of
the most valuable methods of economic analysis-econometrics.
Econometrics is a method of estimating economic relationships using
quantitative analysis. In our example, the Quick Pho owner identified the
negative relationship between price and demand. He also recognized the
positive relationship between demand and better service. The owner made
all of these determinations by estimating and predicting, just as trained
economists do in their research.
93. KINH TẾ LƯỢNG GIẢN ĐƠN
Tiệm phở Nhanh được nhiều người biết đến sau khi được tiếp đón một
thực khách người nước ngoài rất nổi tiếng. Ít lâu sau, chủ tiệm quyết định
tăng giá một tô phở từ 10.000 lên 15.000 đồng. Một năm sau, giá lại tăng
