A-Level Economics | Demand and Supply

What is demand?

  • demand is the number of goods and services that people are willing and able to buy at each price

What is the relationship between price and demand?

  • downward sloping (inverse relationship)
  • at higher prices, quantity demanded is lower because goods and services are less affordable so less people are willing and able to buy

Non-price factors that shift the demand curve

  • PIRATES
  • Population
  • Incomes
  • Related goods (complements or substitutes)
  • Advertising
  • Trends (new fashion etc.)
  • Expectations (toilet roll during covid)
  • Seasons (ice cream/ holiday packages)

What is supply?

  • supply is the number of goods and services that firms are willing and able to sell at each price

What is the relationship between price and supply?

  • upward sloping (positive relationship)
  • at higher prices, quantity supplied is higher because there is a greater incentive for firms to sell due to the potential to make higher profits

Non-price factors that shift the demand curve

  • PCTWINS
  • Productivity
  • Costs of production
  • Technology
  • Weather
  • Indirect tax
  • Number of firms
  • Subsidies

What is elasticity?

  • responsiveness
  • 0 - perfectly inelastic
  • 1 or -1 - unit elastic
  • infinity - perfectly elasticE

What is PED?

  • price elasticity of demand
  • the responsiveness of demand to a change in price
  • PED = % change in D/ % change in P

What is PES?

  • price elasticity of supply
  • the responsiveness of supply to a change in price
  • PES = % change in S/ % change in P

What is YED?

  • income elasticity of demand
  • the responsiveness of income to a change in price
  • PED = % change in Y/ % change in P

What is XED?

  • cross elasticity of demand
  • the responsiveness of demand of one good, to a change in price of a different good
  • PED = % change in D of good A/ % change in P of good B

Factors that affect PED

  • SANDPIT
  • S - number of substitutes
  • A - addictiveness (cigarettes)
  • N- necessity (electricity/ energy bills)
  • D - durability (sofa)
  • P - proportion of income (inelastic if it is something that is £1 increases by 50% to £1.50, elastic if it is something that increases by 50% from £1000 to £1500)
  • I
  • T - time (over time, the other factors change e.g. people get used to substitutes over time)

Factors that affect PES

  • SECTS
  • S - substitutability of factors
  • E - barriers to entry
  • C - spare capacity
  • T - time
  • S - stock level

Factors that affect YED

  • inferior goods - YED < 0
  • normal goods - 0 < YED < 1
  • luxury goods - YED > 1

Factors that affect XED

  • strong complements - XED < -1
  • weak complements - -1 < XED < 0
  • unrelated goods - XED = 0
  • weak substitutes - 0 < XED < 1
  • strong substitutes - XED > 1