Elasticity… … is a measure of how much buyers and sellers respond to changes in market conditions … allows us to analyze supply and demand with greater precision

Importance of Supply-Demand Analysis A little knowledge goes a long way: Price Control, Taxation and other policies. Market welfare: Normative Analysis International Trade Externality (Market Failure) Market Power (Market Failure) Other markets: Financial Market, Labor Market. Macroeconomics

Revisiting the Market Equilibrium Do the equilibrium price and quantity maximize the total welfare of buyers and sellers? Market equilibrium reflects the way markets allocate scarce resources. Whether the market allocation is desirable is determined by welfare economics

Market Efficiency-Market Failure Recall that: Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” of the marketplace leads self-interested buyers and sellers in a market to maximize the total benefit that society can derive from a market

“The best things in life are free. . .” Free goods provide a special challenge foreconomic analysis Most goods in our economy are allocatedin markets… for these goods, prices are the signalsthat guide the decisions of buyers andsellers

The Law of Supply Firms are willing to produce and sell agreater quantity of a good when the priceof the good is higher. This results in a supply curve that slopesupward

Monopoly While a competitive firm is a price taker, amonopoly firm is a price maker. A firm is considered a monopoly if . . . – it is the sole seller of its product. – its product does not have close substitutes

Imperfect Competition Imperfect competition refers to those market structures that fall between perfect competition and pure monopoly. Imperfect competition includes industries in which firms have competitors but do not face so much competition that they are price takers

The Meaning of Competition A perfectly competitive market has the following characteristics: – There are many buyers and sellers in themarket

The Market Forces of Supply and Demand Supply and Demand are the two wordsthat economists use most often. Supply and Demand are the forces thatmake market economies work. Modern microeconomics is about supply,demand and equilibrium