Principles of Microeconomics/Microeconomic Principles/Ceteris Paribus

2.1 The ceteris paribus assumption
The Latin phrase ceteris paribus means “all other things remaining equal.” Because there are multiple factors influencing any one variable, economists apply this assumption in order to segregate the effect that one factor has on the variable in the question, keeping all other factors unchanged. In other words, if we want to examine the effect of one (independent) variable on another (dependent) variable, we need to ensure, through the ceteris paribus assumption, that the effect of other independent variables on the dependent variable is constant. We will encounter this term quite often throughout this course.