Supply & Demand
Discussion & Essay Questions
Available to teachers only as part of the Teaching Supply & DemandTeacher Pass
Teaching Supply & Demand Teacher Pass includes:
- Assignments & Activities
- Reading Quizzes
- Current Events & Pop Culture articles
- Discussion & Essay Questions
- Challenges & Opportunities
- Related Readings in Literature & History
Sample of Discussion & Essay Questions
- What product or service could you never live without?
- What product or service would you give up if its price went up 10%?
- What is the most compelling product introduced in the last five years?
- If Facebook started charging for usage, would you pay? How much?
- If Twitter started charging for usage, would you pay? How much?
- Do you think creating an appearance of scarcity, like Apple did during its iPhone launches, increases demand or makes the seller look like it doesn’t know how to supply a product?
- What product does not exist today for which you believe there is a market need?
- How has technology changed purchasing behavior?
- What was the most important technology innovation in the last twenty years?
- What products have inelastic demands? What products have completely elastic demands?
- Do you believe Ivy League colleges could charge any amount of money without affecting the number of people who apply?
- Should overweight people be required to pay more for health insurance than those who are not overweight? Should smokers be required to pay more than non-smokers?
- Which is better, the iPad or the Kindle?
- Google started as the sixth best search engine. Facebook started at a time when MySpace and Friendster were strong. What did Facebook and Google do right?
- What does rent control do to the pricing and supply of apartment units?
- According to the Wall Street Journal, "Rent control disproportionately subsidizes the affluent. A Harvard University study in the late 1980s found that rent-controlled apartments were in some of the city's best neighborhoods, that 94% of their tenants were white, and roughly three-quarters of their occupants were families without children." Do you think NYC should maintain rent control?
- Microsoft has been accused of being a monopoly, as has Google. In what ways might they act like a monopoly? Do you believe they face competition?