crfpilot

I haven't written a research paper since high school like 15 years ago and I have to write one in my economics class. I need some help with topics with lots of information and some links. It has to be about supply and demand.

Some ideas I have are; Gas prices, or low carb food at restaurants. The problem I am having is I can't find any good reference info on either subject. I found a few articles but nothing really with alot of substance.

So please help me out here, any ideas, links, anything will be greatly appreciated. I have to write an outline this weekend.

Aletheia

What is the scope of the project? Like do you have to prove a point or debate an issue?

Atkins and the affects it has on the bread industry would be good. Lots of data on that atm.

crfpilot

I don't think he really cares as long as it has to do with supply and/or demand.

zfleebin

You might try going to the homepage of your university and looking to see if you can access the library contents while your off campus. I use Academic search premier while sitting at home to get all my resources out of the library. Its worth a try

yakimushi

There has been a lot of discussion about electronics and chip demand.

There was an incedent a few years ago where there was a large earthquake in Taiwan which shut off RAM manufacturing while everything was rebuilt. The resulting shortage in supply sent RAM prices skyrocketing.

sailor

If you are going with the gas prices, look at the price elasticity of demand. Gas is an excellent example of this concept.

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powerclown

Good old American work ethic, alive and well...

nanofever

I would write a paper about inferior goods and complimentary goods and how these items are purchased in different quanities depending on what the supply-demand curves look like. I really wish I was better at math so I could do upper-level econ but anything that goes from "non-calculus" graphs/concepts to "calculus+ math" makes me want to pull my hair out.

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monkeysugar

You might be able to find some helpful statistics on gas price/gas use on this site. Don't know if that's what you are looking for, but it should get you started. http://www.ipaa.org/info/industrystats/default.asp

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ratbastid

I don't know if this quite fits the topic, but you could also write a really interesting paper on the pharmaceutical industry and their government-enforced monopoly on patented drugs, and the effect that politics has on drug prices worldwide.

There's been a lot of talk lately about subsidizing AIDS drugs, for instance, in developing countries where they can't afford them. Well it turns out, if the situation were left alone, it would take care of itself.

There's a phenomenon that happens inside a monopoly situation called Price Discrimination. The idea is that the monopolist sells their product for what they can get for it where they sell it. So patented drugs are expensive in the US where people, generally, can pay for them, and super cheap in developing countries where they can't. Drug companies can afford to sell their drugs for pennies in the third world, because they make up for it in the US and Europe. This is a natural economic phenomenon that occurs when somebody has a monopoly on a product, and if it were allowed to happen with drugs, many many many lives would be saved in developing countries.

Problem is, politicians and HMOs won't stand for it. They get into this big grandstanding thing about "If you can afford to sell it for $0.05 in Uganda, why is my HMO member/constituent in Topeka paying $50.00 for it?" They force the drug companies to keep the prices high worldwide, artificially destroying the supply and demand curve and keeping the drug out of the hands of people in the third world. It's fair to say that politicians and HMOs are killing millions of people in developing countries.

Averett

Write your own damn paper (joking of course, but I ain't gonna help ya)

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