Note: This is the ninthpost in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics.

Prices can have an effect on the demand of goods and services—even when the “goods” are people. Beginning in 1993, Sudan entered into a civil war, with one of the worst parts being that many people were kidnapped and sold into slavery. Humanitarian groups traveled to Sudan to redeem slaves by buying them out of slavery. Is this good policy? Did it work out, or make it worse? In this video, Tyler Cowen uses the concept of elasticity to analyze the situation.

(If you find the pace of the videos too slow, I’d mend watching them at 1.5 to 2 times the speed. You can adjust the speed at which the video plays by clicking on “Settings” (the gear symbol) and changing “Speed” from normal to 1.25, 1.5 or 2.)

Previous in series:Understanding elasticity of Demand