In this exercise, you will take material learned from class and apply it to a real-world situation.
Here are the steps of the assignment:
Find an article written in the last three months that discusses a change in the equilibrium price or equilibrium quantity (or both) of any good or service. The article will not mention the term equilibrium, but that is fine. This can be on ANY good or service, such as cell phones, haircuts, video games, pizza, lawn-cutting services, recreational vehicles, bicycles, and so on. The list is endless. You can choose any product or service EXCEPT GASOLINE. You must provide documentation of your article in sufficient detail so that anyone else in the class can find your article. I leave the documentation format to you, such as MLA, APA, or another format, but the citation is REQUIRED and must be specific enough so that your article can be located by others.
Summarize the article IN YOUR OWN WORDS. You need to provide specifics in terms of what is happening and why.
Analyze what is happening in terms of the demand/supply model. In this section you must be very detailed. Explain which curve or curves are moving, which way they are moving, and why.
State the concluding results of your analysis.
Post your work to the discussion board by using the Reply button below.
You cannot move on to Part II until you have completed Part I.
As an example of steps 3 and 4, assume that you have located an article about gasoline prices indicating higher prices and increased sales due to people driving more. After summarizing the article and providing the citation information, you then go on to state that the increase in the number of consumers has caused the demand curve for gasoline to shift right. This results in an increase in the equilibrium price and the equilibrium quantity. This explains why gas prices have increased and why gas stations are seeing increased purchases of gasoline.
If there are influences on demand and supply, you must indicate this and discuss the uncertainty resulting from the movement of the two curves, unless the article provides enough information to eliminate the uncertainty.
