Problem:
You have been asked to analyze the market for steel. From public sources, you are able to find that last year's price for steel was $20 per ton. At this price, 100 million tons were sold on the world market. From trade association data you are able to obtain estimates for the own price elasticities of demand and supply on the world markets as -0.25 for demand and 0.5 for supply. Assume that steel has linear demand and supply curves throughout.
Required:
Question 1: Solve for the equations of demand and supply in this market and sketch the demand and supply curves. 1
Question 2: Suppose that you discover that the current price of steel is $15 per ton and the current level of worldwide sales of steel is 150 million tons. The most recent elasticity estimates from the trade association this year are -0.125 for demand and 0.25 for supply. Describe the change in the supply and demand curves over the past year using your diagram from part (a). What sort of event(s) might explain the change?