Economic Concepts Worksheet

Economic Concepts Worksheet

Concept Application of Concept from Personal Experience Reference to Concept in Reading

Demand is a schedule or a curve showing the amount of a product that buyers are willing and able to purchase, in a particular time period, at each possible price in a series of prices.

A little over a year ago I had the opportunity to launch a new vaccine. I have watched clinic orders significantly increase as insurance companies began covering this vaccine. Most consumers were not as willing to purchase this product at a cash price.

“A change in demand is different from a change in the quantity demanded, the latter being a movement from one point to another point on a fixed demand curve because of a change in the product's price.”

(McConnell & Brue, 2004, Chp.3).

Supply is a schedule or curve showing the amounts of a product that producers are willing and able to make available for sale at each of a series of possible prices during a specific period.

The flu vaccine supply is a great example of this. Because there is not a lot of profit in vaccines, generally there are only one or two companies in the market. One of the most recent flu vaccine shortages occurred because the second manufacturer was not able to bring theirs to market and a company is only able to produce certain amounts over the course of a flu season.

Changes in one or more of the determinants of supply (resource prices, production techniques, taxes or subsidies, the prices of other goods, price expectations, or the number of sellers in the market) shift the supply curve of a product.” (McConnell & Brue, 2004, Chp.3).

Scarcity limits our options and necessitates that we make choices.

One of the primary roles of a pharmaceutical representative is to leave free samples of a product for physicians to try. Physicians are then able to give free samples to patients. Physicians need to take into consideration not only the amount of samples available but also which of their patients is the most appropriate and how many should be allocated to each.

So “free” products may or may not be truly free to individuals. They are never free to society”

(McConnell