Word.ws English Dictionary

Giffen good

Giffen good noun: a type of inferior good for which the quantity demanded increases when its price rises, and decreases when its price falls, thus violating the usual law of demand.

Noun

Giffen good (plural Giffen goods)

  1. A type of inferior good for which the quantity demanded increases when its price rises, and decreases when its price falls, thus violating the usual law of demand.
    • To qualify as a Giffen good, a good must be inferior and must have an income effect strong enough to overcome the substitution effect. The example often cited of a possible Giffen good is the potato during the Irish famine of 1845–1849.2008, Libby Rittenberg, Principles of Microeconomics, Flat World Knowledge, →ISBN, page 182
    • Economists no longer believe that potatoes were Giffen goods during the great famine, so the quest for the “exceptional case” has continued. […] Last year the economist Garth Heutel published evidence that theme park rides could be Giffen goods.2025 May 3, Tim Harford, “Paying more for less”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 21

Forms of Giffen good

pluralGiffen goods

Origin of Giffen good

Named after Scottish economist Robert Giffen (1837–1910), who was attributed as the author of this idea by Alfred Marshall in his book Principles of Economics.

Questions about Giffen good

What does Giffen good mean?
Giffen good means a type of inferior good for which the quantity demanded increases when its price rises, and decreases when its price falls, thus violating the usual law of demand.
What part of speech is Giffen good?
Giffen good is a noun.
What is the plural of Giffen good?
The plural of Giffen good is Giffen goods.

Words near Giffen good in the dictionary

  1. Giffard West
  2. giffed
  3. Giffee
  4. Giffees
  5. Giffen
  6. Giffen good
  7. Giffen goods
  8. Giffens
  9. giffies
  10. Giffin
  11. giffing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Giffen good (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “Giffen good.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/giffen_good. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.