Inspired by some exploration of the world.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Prices

Here's a price question. I'll post the answer as a comment.

Two products. Chocolates: Toblerone. Cigarettes: Camel.

Two locations. Singapore airport duty-free. Frankfurt airport duty-free.

Countries of origin. Toblerone: Switzerland. Camel: Germany (this particular pack found in both duty-free shops).

Let Pts be the price of Toblerone in Singapore, Ptf Frankfurt. Let Pcs be the price of Camels in Singapore, Pcf Frankfurt.

Pts is 14.5, Ptf is 8.
If Pcs is 14, what is Pcf?

5 comments:

Demers said...

Pcf is 42 bucks (30 euros).

Toblerone costs almost double in Singapore, which I chalked up to transportation cost. So how do cigarettes made in Germany cost three times more in Germany?

My guess is the price elasticity of the consumers differs substantially between the two airports. But I'm not fully satisfied by this explanation.

Dan said...

are there strong cig taxes in germany? i'm surprised about this as well...

ellie said...

I'm with Dan. I'd bet you money (like, a whole dollar) that it's tobacco taxes, not price elasticity of consumers, that would explain this price discrepancy.

allovertheeowl said...

Who actually eats Toblerone?

Demers said...

Regarding tobacco taxes - isn't duty free supposed to be tax free??

As for who eats Toblerone, I am a huge fan of dark chocolate Toberlone.

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Student at NYU, pursuing a PhD in economics.