“Because of the inverse relationship between quantity demanded and price, the price elasticity is always going to be negative although economists usually ignore the negative sign and just use the absolute value.”
So whenever we see a price elasticity, it’s ALWAYS the absolute value rather than a negative number? I guess they’ll let us know if it’s a Giffen good? Seems like an easy way to lose points.
I guess price elasticity of demand should always be negative, except for perfect inelasticity (vertical line) or perfect elasticity (horzontal)
Don’t think too much about questions like that. On the actual exam they won’t try to trick you with an “ah ha” type of question. Know the concepts more than anything else. Under normal circumstances and staying in line with the law of demand, as prices rise, the quantity demanded declines, hence the negative price elasticity.