Question

Gasoline prices typically rise during the summer, a time of heavy tourist traffic. A "street talk" feature on a radio station sought tourist reaction to higher gasoline prices. Here was one response: "I don’t like ‘em [the higher prices] much. I think the gas companies just use any excuse to jack up prices, and they’re doing it again now." How does this tourist’s perspective differ from that of economists who use the model of demand and supply?

Answer 1

Answer:

Explanation:

From an economist perspective, the demand and supply model predict that when there is an increase in demand (more people demand more gasoline because of the heavy tourist traffic) prices will increase, but the equilibrium quantity (quantity supplied, and quantity demand are equal) increases too. In the demand and supply graph, an increase in demand shifts the demand curve to the right (the graph attached shows that price changes from p1 to p2 and quantity changes from q1 to q2). Then, the economist perspective differs from the tourist perspective because prices do not rice because companies use excuses to "jack up" them, they rice because of the demand and supply model predicts it.