Scarcity is one of the key concepts of economics. It means that the demand for a good or service is greater than the availability of the good or service. Therefore, scarcity can limit the choices available to the consumers who ultimately make up the economy. Scarcity is important for understanding how goods and services are valued. Things that are scarce, like gold, diamonds, or certain kinds of knowledge, are more valuable for being scarce because sellers of these goods and services can set higher prices. These sellers know that because more people want their good or service than there are goods and services available, they can find buyers at a higher cost. Show Scarcity of goods and services is an important variable for economic models because it can affect the decisions made by consumers. For some people, the scarcity of a good or service means they cannot afford it. The economy of any place is made up of these choices by individuals and companies about what they can produce and afford. The goods and services of any country are limited, which can lead to scarcity. Countries have different resources available to produce goods and services. These resources can be workers, government and private company investment, or raw materials (like trees or coal). Certain limits of scarcity can be balanced by taking resources from one area and using them somewhere else. Sellers like private companies or governments decide how the available resources are spread out. This is done by trying to strike a balance between what consumers need or want, what the government needs, and what will be an efficient use of resources to maximize profits. Countries also import resources from other countries, and export resources from their own. Scarcity can be created on purpose. For example, governments control the printing of money, a valuable good. But, paper, cotton, and labor are all widely available across the world, so the things required to make money are not themselves scarce. If governments print too much money, the value of their money decreases, because it has become less scarce. When the supply of money in an economy is too high, it can lead to inflation. Inflation means the amount of money needed to buy a good or service increases—therefore money becomes less valuable, and the same amount of money can buy less over time than it could in the past. It is therefore in a country’s best interest to keep its paper money supply relatively scarce. However, sometimes inflation can help an economy. When money is less scarce, people can spend more, which triggers a rise in production. Low inflation can help an economy grow. Abstract AbstractWe analyze the individualization of farm units in Mali in the sense of a transformation of purely collective farms into mixed units in which private plots coexist with collective fields. Since a moral-hazard-in-team problem plagues production on the latter and the household head extracts his income from it, he faces a trade-off between efficiency and capture. We show, within the framework of a patriarchal farm household model, that private plots become profitable for the head once land becomes sufficiently scarce. Specifically, greater land scarcity raises both the probability to find private plots in afarm and the share of farmland allocated to these plots. On the basis of firsthand data collected in southern Mali, we test and confirm the two predictions yielded by the above theory. Moreover, we show that a higher number of married men within the household has the same effect as land scarcity, thus suggesting an interesting refinement of the moral-hazard-in-team argument. Journal Information Current issues are now on the Chicago Journals website. Read the latest issue.Economic Development and Cultural Change (EDCC) publishes studies that use modern theoretical and empirical approaches to examine both the determinants and the effects of various dimensions of economic development and cultural change. EDCC’s focus is on empirical papers with analytic underpinnings, concentrating on micro-level evidence, that use appropriate data to test theoretical models and explore policy impacts related to economic development. Publisher Information Since its origins in 1890 as one of the three main divisions of the University of Chicago, The University of Chicago Press has embraced as its mission the obligation to disseminate scholarship of the highest standard and to publish serious works that promote education, foster public understanding, and enrich cultural life. Today, the Journals Division publishes more than 70 journals and hardcover serials, in a wide range of academic disciplines, including the social sciences, the humanities, education, the biological and medical sciences, and the physical sciences. Rights & Usage This item is part of a JSTOR Collection. What does land scarce mean?People with limited income and assets may not be able to afford land, especially in a rising economy. In this case, land may be available, but inaccessible to many, creating a sensation of land scarcity.
Is land a scarce resource in economics?Land, an Increasingly Scarce Resource. At a global scale, land is becoming a scarce resource, asserting the need for more efficient land use allocation and innovation in agriculture.
Why is land a scarce resource?The limits on these resources are finite while human demands on them are not. Increased demand, or pressure on land resources, shows up as declining crop production, degradation of land quality and quantity, and competition for land.
What is the paradox of soils and farming?The general concept in mainstream farming is that (inferior) soil conditions can be modified by interventions of physical or chemical nature. This belief however is fading away, now that soils pay the toll of decades of ongoing mechanisation, treatments and maximised productivity.
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