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Supply is the transfer of a commodity or service by a company or individual. It is used to denote the group of things that are available and can be purchased, such as natural resources and labour. In business, supply is often confused with demand; however, they’re not synonymous terms. Demand refers to people’s willingness to purchase a product while supply is the quantity of goods actually brought to market (whether physical or virtual).
Meanings
Supply in economics is defined as the total amount of a given product or service a supplier offers to consumers at a given period and a given price level. It is usually determined by market movement, for instance, a higher demand may push a supplier to increase supply.
Supply ( Prof. Benam) Definition
“Supply may mean the amount offered for sale per unit of time.”
Supply ( Prof. Thomas) Definition
“The Supply of goods is the quantity offered for sale in a given market at a given time at various prices.”
Supply ( McConnell ) Definition
“Supply is a schedule which shows the various amounts of a product which a particular seller is willing and able to produce and make available for sale in the market at each specific price in a set of possible prices during a given period.”
Types of Supply
In the market, there are five different types of supply:
Short-term supply: the ability of consumers to buy products is restricted by available supplies. They cannot buy beyond the supplied goods.
Long-term Supply: The factor of availability of time when demand changes which gives the supplier a way to adjust to the quick change in demand. They cannot buy beyond the supplied goods.
Composite supply: The supply of a product through its different sources, where the product serves more than one purpose.
Joint supply: The supply of products produced and sold jointly. Simply mean, when the supply of a product contributes to the supply of two or more than 2 products in the economy.
Market supply: The overall desire and capability of suppliers to supply the market with specific products regularly.
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