price

price
The amount of money paid per unit for a good or service. This is easy to observe for many goods and services: in any ordinary shop, customers will find displayed a price at which as many or few units as they wish can be purchased. For some goods and services, however, price is less easy to observe. Special terms may be available for large orders, for repeat orders, or for particular types of customer. In some markets buyers and sellers haggle over the price of each item. The price of similar goods varies over time and place, and goods with the same name vary in quality. A price index measures the prices of goods of some specified type: for example, consumer goods, raw materials, or exports. Wholesale prices are the prices charged by wholesalers; factory gate prices are the prices charged by manufacturers.

The price mechanism refers to the role of prices in organizing the production and distribution of goods and services in an economy: the prices...

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