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  • So, let's say we are in the apple market.

  • What I want to do in this video is think about

  • both demand and supply for the apples at

  • different prices.

  • Let's draw ourselves a little graph here.

  • We already know this right over here,

  • the vertical axis is the price axis, and

  • this we're going to say is price per pound.

  • The horizontal axis this is the quantity.

  • The quantity of apples.

  • Let's put some tick marks here.

  • Let's say that's $1 a pound, $2 a pound,

  • $3 a pound, $4 a pound, and $5, and

  • let's say this is thousands of pounds produce

  • and we have to set a period.

  • Let's say this is for the next week, and so this is

  • 1000 pounds, 2000, 3000, 4000, and 5000.

  • Now, let's think about both the supply and the

  • demand curves for this market, or potential

  • supply and demand curves.

  • First I will do the demand. If the price of apples were

  • really high, and I encourage you to always

  • think about this when you are about to draw

  • your demand and supply curves. If the price

  • of apples were really high, what would happen

  • to consumers? Well, they wouldn't demand much.

  • The quantity demanded would be low.

  • If the price were high, maybe the quantity

  • demanded is like 500 apples.

  • And once again I am being very careful to say

  • the quantity demanded is 500 apples.

  • I'm not saying the demand is 500 apples.

  • The demand is the entire relationship.

  • The actual specific quantity, we call that

  • the quantity demanded.

  • The price of $5 of quantity demanded would

  • be about 500. Maybe at a price of $1, the quantity

  • demanded would be maybe 4000 pounds.

  • Our demand curve might look something like this.

  • Might look something like that.

  • Let me draw it a little bit less bumpy.

  • So, our demand curve might look something like that.

  • I can label it. That is our demand curve.

  • I'll think about our supply curve.

  • Well, there some price below which we aren't

  • even willing to produce apples.

  • Let's say that's like 50 cents.

  • So at 50 cents that's where were even just willing

  • to start producing apples.

  • Let's say if apples ... if the price of apple got

  • to a dollar where the quantity we've be willing

  • to supply is about a 1000 pounds, and

  • it just keeps increasing as the price increases.

  • So this is the supply curve, and

  • when I talk about we, I'm talking about

  • all the suppliers in this market.

  • We could be doing this for a specific supplier.

  • We could be doing this for a specific market.

  • We could be doing for the global apple market.

  • However, you want to view it, but for the

  • sake of this video let's just assume its like

  • our little town that is fairly isolated and all of that.

  • Let's think about what happens in different scenarios.

  • What happens if the suppliers of the apples

  • going into that week for their own planning purposes ...

  • They just think for whatever reason, that their only going

  • to be able to sell the apples at $1 per pound.

  • Given the supply curve, they only supply 1000 pounds.

  • This is what the suppliers plan for,

  • and this is where they set the price point at $1.

  • One dollar per pound. Now, what's going to

  • happen in that scenario? Well in that scenario

  • they supplied 1000. The quantity supplied is 1000 pounds.

  • Let me write this down. So, I'll do it in pink

  • for this scenario. So, this scenario the quantity

  • supplied is 1000 pounds.

  • What is the quantity demanded? Quantity demanded.

  • This is all the scenario where the price ... the price or the

  • initial price that the growers or producers set

  • was $1 per pound. One dollar per pound.

  • Well the quantity demanded at $1 per pound is

  • 4000 pounds of apples. 4000 pound of apples.

  • What do we have here?

  • Well, here we have a shortage.

  • We have a shortage of 3000 apples at that price point.

  • At a dollar, a lot more people are going to want to buy apples,

  • and the producers just didn't ... I guess

  • they didn't figure that out right.

  • They didn't produce enough apples.

  • Now what will naturally start happening?

  • If you have the shortage ... you have all these

  • people who want to buy apples, and you

  • only have so many apples there,

  • what might happen in the next period in the next week?

  • Well, first of all, those apples that are out

  • there they might get bid up, so, the prices start going

  • to start going up. The prices are going to start

  • going up. People are going to start bidding up

  • the apples. They want them so badly.

  • Their going to start bidding them up,

  • and as they start getting bid up, the producers

  • are going to say, "Wow! There's so many people

  • are running out of apples. We also need to increase

  • the quantity produce."

  • The quantity will also go up. The price will go up.

  • If you look at from the suppliers point of view.

  • The price will go up, and the quantity will go up.

  • They will move along this line there.

  • So maybe in the next period there's less of a shortage,

  • or they move away from that shortage situation.

  • If the price and quantity increase a little bit,

  • so maybe the price goes to $2, and the quantity

  • goes to ... I don't know, this looks like about

  • 1900 ... 1900 pounds, now all of a sudden you

  • have less of a shortage. I think you see that I'm getting

  • to an interesting point over here.

  • I won't go there just yet. I won't go there

  • just yet. Let's think about another situation.

  • Let's think about after this happens.

  • Price and quantity increases so much that essentially

  • overshoots this interesting point right over here.

  • So in the next week the suppliers they'll say,

  • "Wow! People want our apples so badly, let's set

  • the price really high at $3, and at $3 we're really

  • excited about producing apples."

  • So, we the suppliers are going to produce ...

  • let me do this in a color I haven't used yet.

  • We the suppliers are going to produce at $3 a pound.

  • We are hoping to sell 3000 pounds of apples.

  • This is where, maybe, they adjust to the next week.

  • What's going to happen there at a price of $3.

  • That's the scenario right over here. The price of $3.

  • So, the price is now $3 per pound.

  • Well, now the quantity supplied is going to be 3000 pounds.

  • I could write 3000 pounds.

  • What is the quantity demanded?

  • The quantity demanded is now much lower.

  • The price is high now, because the consumers

  • might want to go buy other things, or they

  • can't afford an apple, or whatever it might be.

  • Now the quantity demanded, now that's looks

  • like about 1300. 1300 pounds.

  • What situation do we have now?

  • Well, now we have a much bigger supply then ... or

  • the quantity supply is much bigger than the

  • quantity demanded. Now we face a surplus.

  • So, now we have a surplus.

  • Let me draw that line there. I want to make it

  • clear this is all the same scenario.

  • We now have a surplus of ... what is this?

  • 700 will get us to 2000. We have a surplus of 1700

  • pounds of apples. Now what happens in a

  • surplus situation? Well, apples won't stay good

  • forever, so maybe the producers get a little

  • desperate. They start selling.

  • They start reducing the price, maybe to start attracting

  • some consumers. They start reducing the price.

  • When they start seeing that the prices are going down,

  • and you have this glut of apples, there're all going bad

  • and not getting sold, the quantity is also going to

  • start going down. They'll produce fewer and

  • fewer apples, so we'll move here along the supply curve.

  • As you decrease the price, what's going to

  • happen to the demand curve?

  • Well the demand is going to go up.

  • Over here the prices was too high, so it's

  • natural for the sellers to lower the price.

  • When you lower the price it also reduces the quantity.

  • We go this way.

  • When you lower the price it increases demand.

  • You go that way.

  • If the price from the get-go were too low,

  • then you have this huge shortage, things get

  • bid up. The prices go up. As the price goes

  • up, the suppliers want to produce more.

  • They move up the curve. As the price goes up

  • then the people will demand less.

  • You see that's it's all converging on a point

  • right over here where the two lines intersect.

  • Let me do that in a ... its all converging right over there.

  • That's the price at which the quantity supplied will equal

  • the quantity demanded. We call this, which looks like

  • for this scenario, maybe about $2.15.

  • Let me just write it there $2.15.

  • We call that the equilibrium price.

  • Equilibrium price is $2.15 a pound.

  • It's the price at which the quantity supplied

  • is equal to the quantity demanded.

  • This quantity supplied is equal to the quantity

  • demanded. That's the equilibrium quantity.

  • That right over here looks like it's right

  • about ... I don't know ... 2200 pounds.

  • 2200 pounds.

  • Assuming that nothing else changes, this is a

  • good scenario for both the consumers and the

  • producers. They keep producing 2200.

  • They charge this price, and everything's happy.

  • All the apples get sold and none of them go bad.

So, let's say we are in the apple market.

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