Scarcity forces economic actors to make tradeoffs. In a market, prices represent the opportunity cost of each good such that buying more of one thing may mean less of another. See more

Scarcity occurs at a time and place. For example, a place may experience water scarcity. There is about 1.386 billion km3 of … See more

Structural scarcity denotes a good or resource that is relatively abundant in one place but scarce in another due to structural problems such as political obstacles or a lack of infrastructure. For example, r… See more

Scarcity is always viewed with respect to demand. If people don't want something, it isn't scarce. Likewise, if demand for something increases, this can increase scarcity. See more