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Supply and Demand

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Essay 1—ECONOMICS I The fluctuations of the sales of products and services in our economy can be traced to the basic laws of supply and demand that govern our society today. The prestigious economist Adam Smith once proposed that society was governed by an “invisible hand” which worked to self-regulate the marketplace in the midst of the ambitious goals of sellers and consumers alike. It is by this “invisible hand” that our economy today works, and it can be used to make sense of how the laws of supply and demand work together to guide markets such as that of ice cream. The law of supply states that a rise in the price of a good induces an increase in the quantity supplied, while the law of demand states that a rise in the price of a good induces a decrease in the quantity demanded. Ultimately, these laws are used to predict which direction supply and demand curves shift, which for this scenario can be due to weather changes, the specific days of the week, and sudden decreases in the supplies used to make ice cream. In the case that the school allows another student to sell ice cream on campus as well, the price of ice cream would fall due to increased competition. The owner of the small ice cream stand on campus is known to have experienced fluctuations in the daily sales of ice cream. One reason to explain this is due to the constantly changing weather. On warmer or hotter days, there is a greater demand for ice cream because people eat it in order to cool off. Due to this greater demand, Ice-Campusades is likely to sell out all of their ice cream before the day is over. In terms of the supply and demand graphs, the demand curve shifts to the right, while the supply curve remains unchanged. On the other hand, if the weather on any given day is relatively cold or chilly, there is less demand for ice cream because students want to stay warm and consume hotter

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