Question

Suppose that severe floods destroyed farms, homes and businesses in the Midwest. Use the aggregate demand /aggregate supply model, to explain the changes you would expect to take place and the effects you would expect these floods to have on both output and prices. (Include both short-run and long-run effects.)

Answer 1

Answer:

Severe floods affecting aggregate demand and aggregate supply can be equated with bad weather destroying crops. In this regard, the supply of goods and services will be slower or harder to keep up with depending on the demand given. The losses suffered as a result of the sever floods will result in the demand for goods and services to increase but the measured supply thereof might not be sufficient given the extreme backlog and circumstances created by the sever floods.

In this scenario, the effects on the output (goods and services) supplied will be slower in the short-run until businesses and farms are restored to stable working conditions. The demand thereof (for output) will increase and has inverse relationship with the supply of goods and services, until there is an equilibrium point reached when the supply of goods and services meet the demand required. Prices in the short term will increase until conditions have become stable. This will affect the GDP of the businesses negatively.

In the long-run, the demand for goods and services will decrease as conditions stabilise and the supply of goods and services will even out to meet the demand required. Depending on the far reaching effects of the severe floods, equilibrium and stable demand and supply may take a while to become normal again. In the long-run the price of goods and services should decrease as the demand required is met through the supply of goods and services. This will affect the GDP of the businesses positively.

Explanation:

To understand the answer given above, you have to understand the inverse relationship there is between the aggregate demand and aggregate supply.

Aggregate supply is the complete number of units (goods and services) supplied to the market (i.e. produced and sold in the market) which is also the gross domestic profit (GDP). In the short-run for this question, the GDP will decrease initially until conditions become stable.

Aggregate demand is the total domestic spending consumers have on goods and services in the economy. The GDP will increase in the long-run as the demand and supply is met and becomes steady.