Elasticity of consumer demand on pork meat in the Slovak Republic

Consumers are the starting point of the final product market vertical line. Their demand is a crucial factor in the decisions about production - what to produce, how much, and what way. The aim of this paper is to provide the analysis of the elasticity of the consumer demand on pork, based on the influence of the change of the determinants influencing the demand on the consumer level of the vertical product line, and subsequent evaluation of the character and intensiveness of the consumer demand elasticities. The evaluation is founded on the determined coefficients for the individual elasticities of consumer demand on the selected commodity. The analysis of the elasticity of the consumer demand on pork is based on a five-factor model of the consumer demand on pork. It was estimated and qualified by the microeconomic theory for estimation and interpretation of individual elasticity coefficients and regression analysis. Furthermore, our attention is focused on determination and interpretation of the coefficients of direct price elasticity of demand, cross-price elasticity of demand, and income elasticity of demand. The value of the price elasticity of demand on pork is 0.770937. As an increase in the buyers' income evokes an increase in demand, it can be stated that pork meat is a superior good for the Slovak inhabitants. Cross-price elasticity of demand between pork and poultry is 0.617363, and between pork and beef it is 0.343435. As the value is positive, pork, poultry, and beef are substitute goods for the consumers. During the studied period, the demand on pork was quarterly decreasing by 0.05162% in average. On the basis of the results received from the analysis of the elasticities of the demand on the consumer level of the studied product vertical line, it can be stated that Slovak consumers of pork meat react more responsively to the change of income than to the change of the price of this good.