What is a market equilibrium? Describe and explain an equilibrium graphically

A market equilibrium occurs when the buyers and sellers in the market are satisfied.
We can also think about an equilibrium in terms of supply and demand. Let's think about a market for Fanta cans, with just one buyer and one seller. Markets can contain lots of buyers and sellers, but the result is the same. For every price, the buyer will desire to buy a certain quantity of Fanta cans; we can plot this on a graph (with price on the y-axis and quantity on the x-axis) as a downward-sloping demand curve (more cans are demanded at lower prices). Meanwhile, suppliers will be willing to sell more cans at higher prices. We can plot the supply curve on top of the demand curve. Now, let's imagine that Fanta cans are being advertised at a high price by the suppliers. By following the horizontal line away from price, we can see that, at this price, the buyer is willing to buy less cans than the supplier wants to sell. The supplier can sell more coke cans by lowering their prices, so that the quantity demanded increases. At low prices, the buyer want more cans than the supplier is making; they can get these cans at higher prices. The equillibrium point is the only point where buyer gets the exact amount of cans they want for a given price, and the seller sells the exact amount they want to sell.

EP

Related Economics A Level answers

All answers ▸

What is meant by absolute poverty and analyse how access to clean water, or another essential item, is closely linked to production, income and wealth, within countries and between countries.


How does increasing interest rates affect inflation?


How does actual economic growth differ to potential economic growth?


The price of coffee beans rose from $1.15 to $1.40 between June and August 2017. A possible cause of this rise is: a) Improved weather conditions in coffee-growing countries; b) An increase in national minimum wage in coffee growing countries.