Economics, Goods and Services, Firms, Production, Supply and Demand - Essay Example

The essay shall focus on how goods and services’ supply and demand is influenced by consumers, how the changing needs and wants of consumer are met and how the different types of resources are used by firms for the production of goods and services. A market is a place where buyers and sellers meet in order to exchange goods and services. Market structure is comprised of buyers, sellers, buyer and seller entry barriers, size of the firm, product differentiation, market share and competition.

With the above characteristics, one is able to determine where a particular firm is classified. Some examples of market structure are; Monopoly-here, companies are owned by the state, and other partner entry is not allowed. Oligopoly-here, the number of buyers is high than the number of sellers, thus competition is high. Monopolistic competition-here there is many buyers and many sellers for same products, different branding and very high competition. Perfect competition-an example is between food bought in the stores and those from the market.

The following are other market definitions: Economics is concerned with production, allocation and utilization of goods and services. Economics can be divided into; microeconomics and macroeconomics. Microeconomics deals with firms, buyers, and markets. Macroeconomics deals with growth, inflation and policies that affect economy (Wessels, 16, 2006). Consumers are those who benefit from goods and services. They are the users of produced products (Houghton, 20, 2009). Goods are useful items that are required and useful to individuals to satisfy their needs or wants.

They can also be classified as tangible, since they can be touched unlike services, and can be stored for the future (Houghton, 15, 2009). There are three types; inferior goods, which decrease in demand as consumer income increases; normal goods, which demand increase as consumer income increases; and luxury goods, which are non essential and are mostly considered an influence. Services are intangible, cannot be stored and are an activity that is done to an individual from another. Services are the other alternatives to goods.

Services are done in order to provide help or as a profession (Houghton, 15, 2009).  Firms are organizations that deal with goods and services and their production to cater for the needs and wants of consumers. Firms can be businesses, corporations, or partnerships that have the main aim of producing goods and services for consumption (Rugraff & Hansen, 119, 2011). Production is the process of manufacturing goods from raw materials. Production is transforming raw materials that in their natural form do not have any benefits to consumers.

After processing these raw materials, the products that come out can be used by consumers (Menger, Klein, Hayek, Dingwall & Hoselitz, 161, 2007). Supply is the distribution of goods and services to consumers. Supply is influenced by the demand for goods and services (Adil, 4, 2006).  Demand is the desire for a certain good or service by a consumer(s) who is willing to buy the good or service at a certain set price. Factors that influence demand are like price; of the good and other related goods (substitute), and also the price of the good and other goods (complementary) (Adil, 5, 2006).

  Resources are the sources that products are extracted from. In economics, there are four main types of resources namely; land, labor, capital and entrepreneurship (Mankiw, 538, 2011).