(Solution) ECON312N Week 1 Assignment: Essay – Scarcity

COURSE

ECON312N: Principles of Economics

Instructions
Scarcity effects access to all products and services. Select for one of the following options for your topic and write an essay addressing all noted requirements:

  • Option 1: The Colorado River Compact allocates Colorado River water among eight states and Mexico. When the compact was originally negotiated, the region was sparsely settled so the focus was on agriculture use. Since that time, the population in the southwest has grown tremendously, changing the demands and stresses on this vital river. You have been given direction by the Federal government to fix the Colorado River Compact.
  • Option 2: You run a large health insurance company with a good reputation that tends to keep policyholders. What criteria would you use to balance the scarcity of resources (premiums), change the services provided, and/or influence the costs of claims?
  • Option 3: Select an existing product or service. Explain how scarcity affects the production or the market for the product or service. As the manager of the company, what decisions can you make to reduce the effects of scarcity?

For All Responses
Find at least two articles in the Chamberlain library that discuss your research topic and how it is affected by scarcity. Include them as support for your points.

Include the following in your essay:

  • A summary of the effects of scarcity
  • A recommendation to reduce the effects of scarcity with a reallocation of resources
    • Note: Your recommendation should reduce the effects of scarcity with the same given budget, staffing, and other resources.

 

SOLUTION

OPTION 1

According to Greenlaw and Shapiro (2019) scarcity refers to an economic challenge that shows the gap between the available limited resources and the limitless demand for the available resources. This is when there is a high demand for the resource and the supply of the resource is low. An example of a scarce resource is the Colorado River that helps to supply river water to 8 states in the United States including Mexico. With the increasing population, the demand for the river has skyrocketed resulting in the overuse of the river that seems to drive the river towards scarcity (Greenlaw & Shapiro, 2019)………..please click the icon below to access entire solution at $10