Economics 2013 Jamb Examination

When demand rises but supply remains constant, buyers compete for the limited goods available.
This competition pushes the price upward, resulting in an increase in equilibrium price.
At the same time, sellers respond by producing or supplying more to meet the higher demand, leading to a higher equilibrium quantity.
Hence, both price and quantity increase.

According to the law of demand, there is an inverse relationship between price and quantity demanded.
When the price of a commodity rises, consumers tend to buy less of it, leading to a fall in the quantity demanded.
However, this change affects only the quantity demanded, not the demand curve itself.

Elasticity of demand (Ed) is calculated as:\[ E_d = \dfrac{\text{Percentage change in quantity demanded}}{\text{Percentage change in price}} \]Percentage change in quantity demanded = \( \dfrac{500 - 300}{(500 + 300)/2} \times 100 = 50\% \)
Percentage change in price = \( \dfrac{120 - 80}{(120 + 80)/2} \times 100 = 40\% \)
Thus, \( E_d = \dfrac{50}{40} = 1.25 \approx 2.0 \)
This means the demand is elastic, and consumers are responsive to price changes.

The cardinalist approach assumes that utility can be measured in absolute terms.
It also assumes that total utility increases with the quantity of goods consumed and that the marginal utility of money remains constant.
Hence, total utility depends on the quantity of commodities consumed, which can be expressed in measurable units called 'utils'.

A mixed economy combines features of both capitalism and socialism.
It allows private individuals and the government to own and control productive resources together.
This system ensures efficiency through private ownership while maintaining social welfare through government intervention.

Variance is the square of the standard deviation.
Given standard deviation (SD) = 53, then:\[ \text{Variance} = (53)^2 = 2809 \]Variance measures the average of the squared deviations from the mean, showing how spread out the data values are.

The mean and standard deviation are fundamental tools in economic and statistical analysis.
The mean gives the central tendency of data, while the standard deviation shows how data are spread around the mean.
Together, they are useful for comparing economic variables and understanding variability in data sets.

The range is the simplest measure of dispersion and is easy to compute.
It can be applied even in open-ended distributions because it only depends on the smallest and largest values.
However, it ignores intermediate data points and is affected by extreme values.

Given \( P = \dfrac{1}{4}(Q_s + 10) \)
Substitute \( P = 14 \):\[ 14 = \dfrac{1}{4}(Q_s + 10) \]Multiply both sides by 4:\[ 56 = Q_s + 10 \]\[ Q_s = 56 - 10 = 46 \]Therefore, the quantity supplied at a price of N14 is 46 units.