Ask YC: Does an open database exist that gives the elasticity of demand for products/services/commodities in the market?<p>If so, this could be a powerful new use of technology to help companies determine where to set their prices.<p>The technology may already be used by companies with lots of resources, but an open-source version for small businesses would be awesome.<p>If you have run across such a service (or the underlying database that would be necessary to run it) let me know. I'd be curious to look into it.
No, not quite. Wall Street decides the market value of public companies, which is in the same ballpark -- but it's a different ball.
This would be a tool that businesses would use for market research. Right now large corporations spend billions of dollars hiring economists who study data and tell them what the elasticity of demand is for any given product.
This information gives companies a good idea of how much they should charge to maximize revenues. Small businesses don't have access to the data or to money to afford economists. So this tool would provide that service.
