Question

You, being a supplier of steak dinners, opened your steak house. Assume the market-clearing price is $20 and the market clearing quantity is 500 for a steak dinner; (however, you do not have this information). You, the owner of the steak diner, decide to price your steak dinners at $15.00. You notice that when you do this you could have sold 650 steak dinners but are willing and able to sell only 400. Draw this situation on a graph. Put all numbers given on your graph.
RequireD:
a. What will happen in this market? Will there be a shortage or a surplus? Show this on your graph. What will happen in this market (assume there are no price controls).
b. A news released proved the inefficiency of hybrid vehicles. However, 2 months ago the number of dealers offering various hybrid models nearly tripled. How will this affect the price of hybrid vehicles?

Answer 1

Answer:

A) Shortage, B) Fall in Price

Explanation:

A] Market is at equilibrium where - downward sloping Market Demand (inversely related to price), & upward sloping Market Supply (directly related to price) - are equal &  these curves intersect each other.

Above condition gives us equilibrium price & quantity.

If market price < equilibrium price, as given case 15 < 20. Then, supply being directly related to price is lesser, demand being inversely related to price is higher. So, there is a situation of excess demand, ie shortage (graphically denoted by distance between demand & supply curve at actual price below equilibrium price)

B] Dealers of hybrid vehicles increase imply increase in supply of these vehicles, rightwards shift in the supply curve. This creates excess supply ie surplus of them. It implies that competition among sellers lead to fall in price of these hybrid vehicles.