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Discuss Supply and Demand Reversal Of Environmental Resources

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Supply and demand can be defined as the relationship between the amount of a product that producers want to sell at various prices and the quantity that buyers want to buy at that price. It is the most generally used way of determining price. The combination of supply and demand in a market determines the price of a commodity. The equilibrium price is the price that results as a result of the process. In supply-demand, the equilibrium price is essential to create both a balanced market and an efficient market, that is a settlement between the product’s producers and buyers is signified by the equilibrium price. The amount of an item provided by producers equals the quantity sought by consumers when the market is in balance and efficient. 

What is Demand?

Demand refers to a consumer’s desire to buy products and services as well as their readiness to pay a price for them. The demand for a product or service will be reduced if the price is raised since the consumer can purchase a few products with the same amount. When we discuss demand, there is one thing that pops up is the law of demand, which states that, if all other factors remain constant, the higher the price of an item, the fewer people will want it because the opportunity cost of purchasing that item rises as the price of that good rises. As a result, buyers will naturally be hesitant to purchase a product that requires them to forego something they value more. The slope of the demand curve is decreasing (negative) because of the inverse relationship between price and quantity.

Determinants of Demand:

  1. Changes in taste: In our day-to-day lives, there is an observable action that indicates that if customer tastes alter in such a manner that they now prefer some another product more, they will desire more of it. They will desire less of existing if they ask for another taste more frequently. 
  2. Population: It has a simple explanation as the market expands in size, such as when a country’s population rises, so does product demand, generally in the case of normal goods. The larger the quantity necessary, the more buyers there are.
  3. Income: When a person’s income improves, they may afford to buy more costly goods or buy more of the goods they normally buy in larger quantities, then demand will increase.
  4. Related-goods prices: When the price of a complementary product falls, the amount requested for the first rises, while the demand for the second rises. Let’s see the example, the demand for butter will be reduced if the price of bread rises. This is due to the complementary nature of the items.
  5. Expectations: In our day to day life we all are surrounded by expectations and the same behaviour applies when we purchase any commodity from the market, in a manner such when a consumer anticipates the price of an item to decline in the future, they will delay purchasing it until later, reducing demand for that item right now. On the other hand, if a customer expects a price increase in the future, demand for the goods will grow today.

What is Supply?

The entire amount of a product or service accessible to consumers is referred to as supply. Supply, in simple words, refers to the amount of anything that is available at a specific price or over a price range. The law of supply explains how much something is worth at a particular price. Unlike the law of demand, the supply connection has an increasing slope. As a result, the bigger the number supplied, the higher the price, because the supplier can generate more revenue with the quantity sold. Manufacturers supply more for a higher price because the higher selling price offsets the higher opportunity cost of each additional unit sold. The quantity requested or delivered, which can be found on the horizontal axis, is always expressed in units of the good in a given period of time. The forms of supply and demand curves can be influenced by longer or shorter time periods.

Determinants of Supply: 

  1. The cost of the good/service: The price of the product/service is the most evident predictor of supply. A product’s supply increases if its relative price is greater as mentioned above, the rationale is straightforward. Every firm has a single motive is to earn money than to make money, a company sells goods or services, and as prices rise, so does profit.
  2. Price of Complementary Goods: If the price of related items rises, the company expands its supply of the higher-priced commodities. As a result, the availability, or we can say the supply of low-cost products decreases. For example, if sugar and tea leaves are complementary goods, and the price of sugar is increased then the supplier may increase the production of tea leaves as well because in the future the prices of tea will rise as well. 
  3. The Cost of Production Factors:  When the cost of a single item of production rises, the cost of making items that use a lot of that element climbs considerably as well. The cost of manufacturing things that require a lower amount of the given element rises somewhat. A rise in the cost of land, for example, will have a significant impact on the cost of growing wheat but just a little impact on the cost of making vehicles. So when production costs increase then the supplier gets less benefit or revenue from the product that reducing the supply since no one will willing to work on loss.
  4. The Current State of Technology: Technological advancements and inventions have the potential to improve the quality and/or quantity of things produced with the same resources. As a result, the level of technology has the potential to raise or decrease the supply of specific items. Technology can accelerate data gathering and decrease error-prone manual processes, technology lowers labour expenses and with low expenses, there will be more revenue for suppliers.
  5. The policy of the Government: Commodity taxes, such as excise duty, import charges, GST, and others, have a significant influence on production costs. The supply of goods subject to these taxes increases only when the price rises. Subsidies, on the contrary, cut production costs while also increasing supply in most circumstances.

It is the Reversal of Environmental Resources:

Natural resources are being depleted on a regular basis by humans. Natural resources are being over-exploited as a result of population growth, with little or no regard for conservation. They are being depleted to fulfill the demands of this enormous population. Apparently, renewable resources are really not given sufficient time to replenish. As a result, natural resource depletion is extremely detrimental to the world and its inhabitants. Prices will rise, and many economies will collapse as a result of a scarcity of resources. Forests are similarly being chopped down at an astonishing speed.

As we can see the rate at which natural resources were extracted was significantly slower than the rate at which they were replenished. Man’s exploitation of nature was limited by the environment’s ability to absorb it. However, in today’s environment, with the population boom and industrial revolution, the need for both production and distribution resources has increased at a considerably faster rate. The pace of regeneration of these resources, on the other hand, is significantly slower than the rate of extraction. In other words, the pace of natural resource use (demand) surpasses the rate of supply. This is beyond the environment’s capacity to absorb and has increased the likelihood of an environmental disaster. The supply-demand reversal of environmental resources refers to this reversal in the demand and supply connection.

However, as the world’s population and demands grew, the demand for resources for both production and consumption outpaced the rate of resource regeneration. As a result, the supply-demand relationship for environmental resources has flipped, with a very high demand for environmental resources and services but limited availability owing to abuse and misuse.

Conclusion:

A market’s pricing is determined by supply and demand, which is a microeconomics model. It is assumed that the unit price for a particular item will fluctuate until it settles at a point where the quantity sought equals the quantity provided, resulting in an economic equilibrium in terms of price and amount transacted. The demand for resources for both production and consumption has outpaced the rate of resource regeneration, putting pressure on the environment’s absorption capacity. The environment has degraded as a result of this inversion of the supply-demand relationship, with demand for resources surpassing supply.

 



Last Updated : 08 Sep, 2022
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