Supply And Demand

Laws of Supply and Demand The market price of a good is determined by both the supply and demand for it. In the world today supply and demand is perhaps one of the most fundamental principles that exists for economics and the backbone of a market economy. Supply is represented by how much the market can offer. The quantity supplied refers to the amount of a certain good that producers are willing to supply for a certain demand price. What determines this interconnection is how much of a good or service is supplied to the market or otherwise known as the supply relationship or supply schedule which is graphically represented by the supply curve. In demand the schedule is depicted graphically as the demand curve which represents the amount of goods that buyers are willing and able to purchase at various prices, assuming all other non-price factors remain the same. The demand curve is almost always represented as downwards-sloping, meaning that as price decreases, consumers will buy more of the good. Just as the supply curves reflect marginal cost curves, demand curves can be described as marginal utility curves. The main determinants of individual demand are the price of the good, level of income, personal tastes, the population, government policies, the price of substitute goods, and the price of complementary goods. When a suppliers' costs changes for a given output, the supply curve shifts in the same direction. For example, assume that someone invents a better way of growing corn so that the cost of corn that can be grown for a given quantity will decrease. Basically producers will be willing to supply more corn at every price and this shifts the supply curve outward, an increase in supply. This increase in supply... ... middle of paper ... ... Also important is the price of complements, or goods that are used together. When the price of gasoline rises, the demand for cars falls. In conclusion, generally speaking the Law of Supply states that when the selling price of an item rises there are more people willing to produce the item. Since a higher price means more profit for the producer and as the price rises more people will be willing to produce the item when they see that there is more money to be earned. Meanwhile the Law of Demand states that when the price of an item goes down, the demand for it will go up. When the price drops people who could not afford the item can now buy it, and people who are not willing to buy it before will now buy it at the lower price as well. Also, if the price of an item drops enough people will buy more of the product and even find alternative uses for the product.