Applied Economics Week 3
Applied Economics Week 3
Applied Economics Week 3
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Department of Education - Region No. VIII – Schools Division Office of Tacloban City
Office Address: Real St., Tacloban City
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APPLIED ECONOMICS 12
Quarter Week 3
2. What will happen if the prices of basic commodities will keep on increasing?
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3. Is there any effective way of keeping the prices of basic commodities at levels that
are accessible to the masses?
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“Are you taking it?”
5 P 6.00 9
6 P 7.00 8
7 P 8.00 7
8 P 9.00 6
9 P10.00 5
10 P11.00 4
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“Here’s how it is”
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spend properly to buy what they want or need at the best possible
price. They want to save money even after buying things.
4. Price of related goods. When the price of a certain good
increases, people tend to buy substitute products. For example, if
the price of Colgate increases, consumers buy less of Colgate and
more of the close substitute like Close-up
or Hapee. This means, the demand for Colgate decreases while the
demand for substitutes increases. This means, if the price of one
good increases, the demand for the other good increases. For
substitutes then, price and quantity demanded are directly related.
(Pagoso, 2006)
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Law of Demand
The law of demand may be stated as “the quantity of a
commodity which buyers will buy at a given time and place will vary
inversely with the price.” This means that as price increases,
quantity demanded decreases, and as price decreases, quantity
demanded increases other things are constant.
There are two ways of explaining why people buy more or
less of a good depending on price:
1. Income effect. At lower prices, an individual has a greater
purchasing power. This means he, can buy more goods and
services. But at higher prices, naturally, he can buy less.
2. Substitute effect. Consumers tend to buy goods with lower prices.
In case the price of a product that they are buying increases, they
look for substitutes whose prices are lower. Thus, the demand for
higher priced goods will decrease. (Dinio and Villasis, 2017)
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Table 1. Hypothetical Demand Schedule of B
From the table, it is shown
that an individual would
tend to buy more when its
price is low than when the
price is high.
At a price of P35.00,
quantity demanded by the
consumers is 5 while a
decrease of price to
P5.00 increases the
quantity
5 35
10 30
15 25
20 20
25 15
30 10
35 5
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Figure 1. Graphical Illustration of a Demand Curve
In Figure 1, price is
presented on the vertical
axis and quantity
demanded on the
horizontal axis. The points
can be connected in a
continuous curve. We label
our demand curve with D,
which means demand, to
indicate that it is the entire
demand schedule.
It can be noted that
the demand curve is
sloping down. It shows that
price and quantity
demanded are inversely
proportional. This inverse
relationship between prices
and quantity demanded
depicts the law of demand.
Determinants of Supply
1. Technology. This refers to the method of production or how
something is produced. Having modern technology means being
able to produce more. This means more supply. If producers had to
rely on old technology which uses animals instead of machines,
production would be slower. Better technology means more supply
produced and less cost of producing these goods.
2. Cost of production. This refers to the things a producer has to
spend on to keep making goods and services. This includes: raw
materials, laborers, bank loan interests, taxes, and land or building
rent. An increase in cost of production makes it harder for the
producer because he or she has to pay more to keep producing.
This is why when the cost of producing goes up, the supply of
goods most likely goes down.
The producer, given a higher cost of production, cannot
produce as much. Wage is a cost of production. Think of a factory.
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A factory needs workers. The owner of the factory needs to pay the
workers so that they will help him or her make goods. Wage is a
cost that the owner has to pay. It is the cost of making something.
This means that if the owner has to pay more wage, the cost of
production goes up. This means supply of the goods will go down.
For example, businessmen don’t want to sell more goods if
they are not sure that they will get as much money. If they have to
pay workers more, that means less of their profit will stay with the
owners. They have to give more of what they earn to the workers.
What if sellers just increase price when cost of production goes up?
Won’t this help them get more money? It might, but not all the time.
Remember that higher prices mean less people will buy. This
means that if the cost of production doesn’t go down soon, sellers
will continue losing money. They might have to stop producing
completely.
3. Number of sellers. More sellers or more factories means an
increase in supply. On the other hand, less sellers or factories
means less supply.
4. Prices of other goods. Since a price increase means less
demand, a producer may choose to produce something else to
continue gaining profit or to have more profit. Let us say, the price
of rice goes up. If so, then a farmer may choose to produce more
corn instead because he knows that less people will buy rice from
him.
Price expectations. If producers expect prices to rise very soon,
they usually keep their goods and then release them in the market
when the prices are already high. Sadly, this leads producers to
keeping their supply of goods until prices increase. This is called
artificial shortage. This is usually what happens when the
government says that the prices of some basic goods are about to
go up.
Some basic goods are: gasoline, rice, milk or cooking oil.
What about if producers expect a price decrease? In this case, they
will lessen production. Still, there are some exceptions, like farmers.
They cannot lessen their crop supply especially when their crops
are already growing. On the other hand, many factories increase
the number of their goods due to expected price increase.
5. Taxes and Subsidies. Certain taxes increase the cost of
production. Higher taxes discourage production because it reduces
the earnings of businessmen. That is why the government extends
tax exemptions to some new and necessary industries to stimulate
their growth. Similarly, tax incentives are granted to foreign
investors in order to increase foreign investment in the Philippines.
This will result to more goods.
In the case of subsidies, there is financial assistance to
producers. Clearly, subsidies reduce the cost of production. This
induces businessmen to produce more. (Dinio and Villasis, 2017
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The Law of Supply
The law of supply states that the quantity offered for sale will
vary directly with price. This means that as price increases quantity
supplied also increases; and as price decreases, quantity supplied
also decreases. This direct relationship between price and quantity
supplied is the law of supply. Producers are willing and able to
produce and offer more goods at a higher price than at a lower
price. Obviously, sellers offer more goods at higher prices because
they make more profits. Such behavior of sellers or producers is a
natural inclination. No businessman is willing to produce goods if he
makes no profit.
PRIC QUANTITY
E SUPPLIED
5 5
10 10
15 15
20 20
25 25
30 30
35 35
The supply schedule as shown in Table 2 can also be
illustrated in graphical form known as the supply curve. This is
shown in Figure 2.
“Now do it!”
Directions: Plot the following hypothetical demand schedule of pork and supply schedule of
bangus in the market in a graphing paper and explain each graph.
Activity: SUM ME UP
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RUBRICS
PRICE
QUANTITY
PRICE
QUANTITY
QUANTITY
Sum Me UP
(answers may
vary)
References
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. “Treasury Department Reference Exchange Rate Bulletin”.
July 30, 2020.
Dinio, Rosemary P. and George A. Villasis, eds. 2017. Applied Economics. Manila,
Philippines. Rex Book Store.
Villegas, Bernardo M. eds. 2010. Basic Economics. Center of Research and Communication
Foundation, Inc., Manila, Philippines.