Giffen

Giffen is a surname of Scottish origin. The name is associated with several notable individuals, most famously Sir Robert Giffen (1837–1910), a Scottish statistician and economist whose work helped popularize the idea later named after him. The surname has been borne by others in academia and public life, but no single figure defines the name.

In economics, a Giffen good is a theoretical type of inferior good for which a price increase leads to a higher quantity demanded, contrary to the ordinary law of demand. This paradox can occur when the good makes up a large portion of a consumer’s budget and there are few close substitutes; the positive income effect of a higher price dominates the substitution effect, so consumers buy more of the good and less of others.

Real-world examples of genuine Giffen goods are considered rare and debated. While the concept is frequently taught to illustrate the distinction between income and substitution effects, strict empirical confirmation under real-market conditions remains limited. The term remains a useful theoretical tool in microeconomics for understanding how demand behavior can deviate from the conventional downward-sloping pattern under specific income and substitution dynamics.