1. CH5: SUPPLY Essential Question
How do firms/suppliers decide what goods and services to offer?

2. Why Does the Supply Curve Shift? Objectives:
Explain how factors such as input costs create changes in supply.
Identify three ways that the government can influence the supply of goods.
Analyze other factors that affect supply.

3. Introduction Why does the supply curve shift?
Several factors cause the supply curve to shift.
Rising input costs (supply decreases)
Technology and falling costs (supply increases)
Government Influences (supply inc and dec)
Future expectations of prices (supply inc and dec)
Number of suppliers (supply inc and dec)
All of these are non-price factors
Current prices

4. Shifts in the Supply Curve
Factors that reduce supply shift the supply curve to the left
Factors that increase supply move the supply curve to the right.
Answers: 1. Decrease in Supply graph. 2. Increase in Supply graph

5. Rising Input Costs
Any changes in the cost of an input used to make a good will affect supply.
A rise in the cost of raw materials, for example, will result in a decrease in supply because the good has become more expensive to produce.
The supply curve would shift to the left
The high input costs that dairy farmers pay for feed, labor, and fuel result in higher prices for milk and other dairy products.

6. Technology and Falling Costs
In many industries, advances in technology can lower production costs.
Examples of technology advances include:
Automation, Computers,
A decrease in the input costs will result in an increase in supply because the good has become less expensive to produce.
The supply curve would shift to the right
Amazon.com greatly reduced costs by using technology to sell online
They don’t have to pay for as many employees or rent for stores
Car companies greatly reduced costs by using automated machines and robots to produce their cars
They had lower labor costs because it takes one employee to run a machine that makes 10 cars compared to hiring more employees to make all the cars using hand tools

7. Higher Input Costs lead to Less Supply and a shift to the Left
Lower Input Costs lead to More Supply and a shift to the Right

8. Government’s Influence on Supply
Subsidies
The government often gives subsidies to the producers of a good.
Subsidies generally lower cost, which allows a firm to produce and supply more goods.
Reasons for subsidizing products include:
To provide for people during food shortages
To protect young industries from foreign competition.
Rich companies pay Congress for support (Corn)

9. Government’s Influence on Supply
Taxes
Excise taxes increase production costs by adding an extra cost for each unit sold. This generally decreases the supply of goods sold
They are sometimes used to discourage the sale of a good the government deems harmful, such as cigarettes and alcohol.
These are like sales taxes
Sometimes these taxes are used to help pay for negative externalities
Gasoline tax pays to fix roads and lower pollution

10. Government Influences, cont.
Regulation
Indirectly, government regulation often has the effect of raising costs and decreasing supply of goods.
When the government regulated the auto industry to cut down on pollution, these regulations led to an increase in the cost of manufacturing cars.

11. Future Expectations of Prices
Checkpoint: What happens to supply if the price of a good is expected to rise in the future?
If a seller expects the price of a good to rise in the future, the seller will store the goods now in order to sell more in the future.
If the prices of good is expected to drop in the near future, sellers will earn more by selling goods on the market now, before the price falls.
Checkpoint Answer: Supply will decrease.

12. Number of Suppliers
If more suppliers enter a market, the market supply will rise and the supply curve will shift to the right.
If suppliers stop producing a good and leave the market, market supply will decline, causing the supply curve to shift to the left.

13. Shifts in the Supply Curve: Sample Questions
Which graph best represents the effects of higher costs?
Which graph best represents advances in technology?
Which graph best represents the effect of a new soda tax?
Which graph best represents the effect of less firms supplying a product?
Which graph best represents an expectation for future prices to fall?
Answers: 1. Decrease in Supply graph. 2. Increase in Supply graph 13

14. Key Terms
subsidy: a government payment that supports a business or market
excise tax: a tax on the production or sale of a good
regulations: government intervention in a market that affects the production of a good