International Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Studies

Therefore, law of supply would be applicable only when the cost of production remains constant. Economists have studied the behaviour of sellers, just as they have studied the behaviour of buyers. As a result of their observations, they have arrived at the law of supply. Law of supply states the direct relationship between price and quantity supplied, keeping other factors constant (ceteris paribus). The quantity supplied is expressed on X-axis
while price is measured on Y-axis.

As a general rule, supply curve slopes upwards, showing that quantity supplied rises with a rise in price. However, in certain cases, positive relationship between supply and price may not hold true. When the price of a good increases, the sellers are ready to supply more goods from their stocks.

Supply Curve

Where Qsx is the quantity supplied of the commodity X, Px is its own price, F1, F2…………….. Fm are the prices of inputs used to produce the commodity X and the state of technology determines the form of supply function S. It must be noted that the form of the supply function refers to the precise quantitative relation between the independent variables such as the own price of the commodity X and prices of factors such as F1, F2 etc. The law of supply summarizes the effect price changes have on a producer’s behavior. For example, a business will make more of a good (such as TVs or cars) if the price of that product increases. So, if the price of TVs increases, TV producers are incentivized to produce more of them.

Thus, the price of the commodity serves as an incentive to produce more and more units of the commodity. Higher the price higher will be an incentive for the producer to produce and supply more. It can be interpreted from the graph that as the wages of a worker increases, its quantity supplied that is working hours decreases, which is an exception to the law of supply. It is believed that the price of the product changes, but there may be no exchange within the cost of production. If the cost of Production will increases alongside the rise in the price of the product, the dealers will no longer discover it worthwhile to supply greater and supply extra.

Chapter 4: Elasticity of Demand

Its group of workers works in the morning and supply them to clients whilst the store opens. The regulation of supply also can be supplied with the assist of a diagram. Law is one sided as it explains only the effect of change in price on the supply, and not the effect of change in supply on the price. There should not be any change in the income of the purchaser or the seller. When the price rises from OP to OP2 and then supply also rises from OQ to OQ2. Similarly, if price is reduced from OP to OP1, then supply will reduce from OQ to OQ1.

Here the wage rate has been regarded as the price of labour and the labour supply is determined in terms of Labour-Hours the worker is willing to work at a given wage rate. It has been observed that as wages increase, a worker might work for a lesser number of hours than before. In this connection if the seller expects a rise in the price in future, he may withhold his stock of the commodity. He will therefore reduce his supply in the market at the present price.

Schedule of Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility

The change in technology affects the supply function by altering the cost of production. If there occurs an improvement in production technology used by the firm, the unit cost of production declines and consequently the firms would supply more than before at the given price. That is, the supply would increase implying thereby that the entire supply curve would shift to the right. The decrease in supply occurs when the prices of factors (inputs) used for the production of a commodity is produced at a higher cost per unit which causes a reduction in quantity supplied at each price. Second, this law of supply applies when the short-run marginal cost is rising in the region where it is profitable to produce. It may be recalled that short-run marginal cost rises due to the diminishing marginal returns to the variable factors.

The positive sign
represents direct relationship between P and Qs. For example, there would be a decrease in the supply of labour in an organisation when the rate of wages is high. They will handiest start supplying extra loaves of bread if they see they’re selling out earlier than the quilt of the day. If extra clients come in trying bread, this sends a clear sign that they need to grow supply. Let us take an example and say the bakery substances two hundred loaves of bread each day to its clients.

The reason for this lies in its definition-the supply curve is designed to answer question of the form, ‘How much will firm A supply if it encounters a price which is fixed at P dollars”. But such a question is most relevant to the behaviour of firms that actually assumptions of law of supply face prices over whose determination they exercise no influence. It may be noted that if price falls too much, supply may dry up altogether. The price below which the seller will refuse to sell any quantity of a commodity is called the reserve price.

The farmer would withdraw the resources from the production of potato and devote the same to the production of onion. Therefore, at increasing prices, more firms are willing to enter the market to produce goods. The profitability of the business firm is based on the price of the product in the market. The higher the price of a commodity, the higher is the profit, ceteris paribus. Therefore the increase in price gives incentives to producers to produce and offer for sale a large amount of the goods.

This occurs because sellers cannot keep such things for an extended period. The bakery raises its prices, or it attempts to make greater loaves of bread–growing supply. In economically backward countries, production and supply cannot be increased with rise in price due to shortage of resources. Discuss the assumptions of the supply and demand model inherent in the EMH.

Limitation / Exception of Law of Demand

In the session on the law of supply definition economics, we will be also discussing the assumption of the law of supply. Rare, artistic and precious articles are also outside the scope of law of supply. For example, supply of rare articles like painting of Mona Lisa cannot be increased, even if their prices are increased. It is a qualitative statement, as it indicates the direction of change in the quantity supplied, but it does not indicate the magnitude of change.

• The opposite is true if the price of video game systems decreases.
• Supply curve is therefore, a graphic representation of what quantities of a good will are offered for sale at all possible prices.
• Commenting on the relevance of supply curve, Prof. Baumol writes, “The supply curve is, strictly speaking, a concept which is usually relevant only for the case of pure (or perfect) competition.
• The cost of production increases due to increase in quantity supplied.

They ought to then produce many more loaves of bread at the same time. In the session on the law of supply definition economics, we will be also discussing the examples of the law of supply. The assumption of the law of supply can be dedicated to the following points. Stock is the total volume of a commodity which can be brought into the market for sale at a short notice and supply means the quantity which is actually brought in the market. Let us discuss important exceptions to the law of supply in detail. As mentioned earlier, the supply of a commodity is dependent on many factors other than price, such as consumers’ income and tastes, price of substitutes, natural factors, etc.

Assumptions of Law of Supply

In the above graph, the rising slope of the supply curve (SS) indicates a clear relationship between price and quantity supplied. Further, the regulation assumes that there are not any adjustments in the prices of other merchandise. If the price of a few other products rises faster than that of the product in consideration, producers may transfer their resources to the opposite product—that is extra earnings-yielding due to rising prices. Under this example and situations, more of the product in attention won’t be supplied, no matter the rising prices.

Due to the scarcity of resources, output and supply cannot be enhanced in economically underdeveloped countries. The bakery isn’t going to supply more loaves of bread if there are not any clients to buy them. There have to no longer be any trade within the profits of the consumer or the vendor. The Law of Supply can be better understood with the help of the following table and graph.

This is because high market price for wheat relative to gram induces farmers, who aim at maximising profits, to use more resources for production of wheat and fewer resources for production of gram. Corresponding to the demand schedule already explained we can construct an individual’s supply schedule. Also by totaling up the amount sup­plied at various prices by all the sellers in a mar­ket, we can obtain the supply schedule of the market. Supply schedule represents the relation between prices and the quantities that the firms are willing to produce and sell. We have given in Table 20.1 a supply schedule of wheat per day in a market.

The quantity of a commodity that firms will be able and willing to offer for sale in the market depends on several factors. Learn about demand and supply schedules and understand how they are used. Explore the laws of supply and demand, and see both supply and demand schedule examples. Supply and demand model is tool to understand and explain the market.