Price

In economics and business, the price is the assigned numerical monetary value of a good or service. The concept of price is central to microeconomics where it is one of the most important variables in resource allocation theory (also called price theory). Price is also central to marketing where it is one of the four variables in the marketing mix that business people use to develop a marketing plan.

Historically, price value has superseded the barter value of pre-monetary systems, in which bartering was used to determine a value of a good or service. Economists, strictly speaking, view price as an exchange ratio between goods. Thus it exists also in a barter system. From this point of view, price is akin to opportunity cost, that is, what you have to give up in exchange for the good or service that you are purchasing.

See also

• pricing
• unit of account
• currency
• marketing
• microeconomics
• marketing mix
• production, costs, and pricing

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(not to be confused with prize, what one wins in gambling or a competition)