After reading this chapter, students should be able to:

• Explain what supply and demand curves for a good, and supply and demand functions, represent.
• Identify various market forces that shift supply and demand curves.
• Use the concept of market equilibrium to calculate the equilibrium price and the amount bought and sold.
• Evaluate how changes in demand or supply aff ect market equilibrium.
• Understand elasticity and the way economists use it to measure the responsiveness of demand or supply.