Demand: the demand curve and what shifts it
Grade 12 Social Studies Worksheet
Circle the best answer.
Read this first
Use this
Cards A and B on U.S. gasoline (card A is real data; card B is a summary in our words). Card A, "U.S. gasoline and two shifters". Who made it: the U.S. Energy Information Administration (gasoline and crude oil, annual averages) and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics through FRED (unemployment, annual average), read November 14, 2026. Table, columns Year | Regular gasoline, dollars a gallon | Gasoline used, thousand barrels a day | Brent crude oil, dollars a barrel | Unemployment rate, percent: 2014 | 3.358 | 8,921 | 98.97 | 6.2; 2015 | 2.429 | 9,178 | 52.32 | 5.3; 2016 | 2.143 | 9,317 | 43.64 | 4.9; 2019 | 2.604 | 9,309 | 64.30 | 3.7; 2020 | 2.168 | 8,049 | 41.96 | 8.1; 2021 | 3.008 | 8,816 | 70.86 | 5.4; 2022 | 3.951 | 8,810 | 100.93 | 3.7. Note in our words: gasoline used is product supplied, a measure of use; prices are not adjusted for inflation. Card B, "Reading the table". Summary in our words, not a quotation: Crude oil is the main input to gasoline, so its price moves the supply of gasoline. Jobs and incomes move the demand for driving. A change in the gasoline price alone moves buyers along one demand curve.
Milo compares 2014 with 2016 on card A. The price fell 36 percent and use rose 4 percent. Which account fits the cards best?
- Demand shifted right as the price fell, since drivers bought more gasoline at the lower price
- Use rose just 4 percent while the price fell 36 percent, so drivers barely respond to the price
- Supply shifted right as crude fell; demand may have grown too, but alone it would have raised the price
- Demand shifted right as unemployment fell, and that one shift explains both the lower price and the higher use
A blog says card A's 2021 and 2022 rows prove drivers ignore price: it rose 31 percent and use held steady. Pia tests the claim. What is the best verdict?
- Not shown: inelastic demand means use falls by more than the price rises, and use barely fell
- Shown: crude rose about 42 percent in 2022, which explains why the gasoline price rose that year
- Weak: jobs grew as crude rose, so both curves likely moved and the two years need not share a demand curve
- Shown: a 31 percent price rise left use almost unchanged, so gasoline demand is perfectly inelastic
Use this
Cards A to D on two markets (example figures, made up for practice). Card A, "E-bikes in Larkton next year". The city's forecast: new bike lanes mean buyers want 20 percent more e-bikes at every price; a battery shortage means makers offer 10 percent fewer at every price. This year 5,000 e-bikes sold at $1,500. Card B, "How strongly each side responds". Estimates: the price elasticity of demand for e-bikes is about −1.5; the price elasticity of supply in the first year is about 0.5. A standard approximation: percent change in price ≈ (percent shift in demand − percent shift in supply) ÷ (elasticity of supply − elasticity of demand). Card C, "Maple syrup in Ellery County". Over one year the price of a jar rose 40 percent and jars sold rose 3 percent. Card D, "Two stories about syrup". A food writer says syrup became a food trend. A producer says a warm spring cut the sap harvest.
Before reading card B, Ari uses card A alone. Which prediction for Larkton's e-bike market next year is safe?
- Sales will rise, since the 20 percent rise in demand is twice the size of the 10 percent cut in supply
- The price could rise or fall, since one of the changes raises it and the other lowers it
- The price will rise; sales could rise or fall, depending on how strongly each side responds
- Both the price and sales will rise, since a rise in demand pushes both of them up
Next year a reporter will divide the change in e-bike sales by the change in price to measure buyers' elasticity. Bo judges the plan. What is the best verdict?
- Misleading: both curves shift, so the before and after points lie on two different demand curves
- Sound, as long as the battery shortage ends and only the new lanes move the market
- Sound: elasticity is the percent change in quantity divided by the percent change in price
- Misleading just because one year is short; several years of data would measure it well
Use this
Cards A to C on Pembury (example figures, made up for practice). Card A, "Estimates for Pembury bus rides". Price elasticity of demand for rides: −0.4. Income elasticity of demand for rides: −0.4. Cross-price elasticity of rides with the price of gasoline: +0.25. Card B, "Two past years". Year 1: the fare rose 10 percent, incomes rose 5 percent, gasoline prices were flat, and rides fell 6 percent. Year 2: the fare fell 2 percent, incomes were flat, gasoline rose 20 percent, and rides rose about 6 percent. Card C, "The town pool". Day-pass demand is a straight line from 0 passes a day at $10 to 1,000 passes at $0, so each $1 cut adds 100 passes. A pass costs $4 now; the town plans $6. The pool's costs do not change with the number of swimmers.
A council member says the $6 pass on card C costs swimmers nothing overall, since the pool takes in $2,400 a day either way. Kira tests the claim. Which verdict is best?
- Wrong: swimmers' surplus falls $1,000 a day, $800 from those who stay and $200 from those who quit
- Wrong: swimmers lose $200 a day, the small triangle for the 200 who stop swimming
- Wrong: swimmers lose $800 a day, the extra $2 paid by each of the 400 who keep swimming
- Right: takings stay at $2,400 a day, so what swimmers pay and what they get is unchanged
A newsletter says Year 2 on card B proves the 2 percent fare cut worked, since rides rose about 6 percent. Luz uses card A. Which reading fits best?
- Mostly a shift: gasoline adds about 5 points, and the fare cut moves riders only about 0.8
- A shift left: dearer gasoline made every trip cost more, so people traveled less overall
- A move along demand: rides rose because the fare fell, just as the law of demand predicts
- A move along demand with an elasticity of −3, since rides rose 6 percent as the fare fell 2
Use this
Cards A and B on U.S. gasoline (card A is real data; card B is a summary in our words). Card A, "U.S. gasoline and two shifters". Who made it: the U.S. Energy Information Administration (gasoline and crude oil, annual averages) and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics through FRED (unemployment, annual average), read November 14, 2026. Table, columns Year | Regular gasoline, dollars a gallon | Gasoline used, thousand barrels a day | Brent crude oil, dollars a barrel | Unemployment rate, percent: 2014 | 3.358 | 8,921 | 98.97 | 6.2; 2015 | 2.429 | 9,178 | 52.32 | 5.3; 2016 | 2.143 | 9,317 | 43.64 | 4.9; 2019 | 2.604 | 9,309 | 64.30 | 3.7; 2020 | 2.168 | 8,049 | 41.96 | 8.1; 2021 | 3.008 | 8,816 | 70.86 | 5.4; 2022 | 3.951 | 8,810 | 100.93 | 3.7. Note in our words: gasoline used is product supplied, a measure of use; prices are not adjusted for inflation. Card B, "Reading the table". Summary in our words, not a quotation: Crude oil is the main input to gasoline, so its price moves the supply of gasoline. Jobs and incomes move the demand for driving. A change in the gasoline price alone moves buyers along one demand curve.
From 2019 to 2020, crude fell 35 percent and unemployment more than doubled. Noah asks what card A's gasoline rows show about the two shifts. Which reading is best?
- Drivers moved down the demand curve as the price fell 17 percent, and use fell along with it
- Supply fell as crude dropped, and that one shift lowered both the price and the use of gasoline
- Both shifts cut the price; use fell 13.5 percent, so the drop in demand outweighed the gain in supply
- Neither result can be read from the data, since a supply gain and a demand drop pull both price and use apart
Use this
Cards A to C on Pembury (example figures, made up for practice). Card A, "Estimates for Pembury bus rides". Price elasticity of demand for rides: −0.4. Income elasticity of demand for rides: −0.4. Cross-price elasticity of rides with the price of gasoline: +0.25. Card B, "Two past years". Year 1: the fare rose 10 percent, incomes rose 5 percent, gasoline prices were flat, and rides fell 6 percent. Year 2: the fare fell 2 percent, incomes were flat, gasoline rose 20 percent, and rides rose about 6 percent. Card C, "The town pool". Day-pass demand is a straight line from 0 passes a day at $10 to 1,000 passes at $0, so each $1 cut adds 100 passes. A pass costs $4 now; the town plans $6. The pool's costs do not change with the number of swimmers.
Next year Pembury expects incomes to fall 5 percent and gasoline to rise 20 percent, with the fare unchanged. Which forecast does Ren draw from card A?
- Rides rise about 7 percent: rides are an inferior good and a substitute for driving
- Rides rise about 5 percent from gasoline; incomes cannot move rides while the fare is fixed
- Rides fall, since a positive cross-price figure means bus rides and gasoline are complements
- Demand shifts left, since falling incomes cut spending on rides along with other goods
Use this
Cards A to D on two markets (example figures, made up for practice). Card A, "E-bikes in Larkton next year". The city's forecast: new bike lanes mean buyers want 20 percent more e-bikes at every price; a battery shortage means makers offer 10 percent fewer at every price. This year 5,000 e-bikes sold at $1,500. Card B, "How strongly each side responds". Estimates: the price elasticity of demand for e-bikes is about −1.5; the price elasticity of supply in the first year is about 0.5. A standard approximation: percent change in price ≈ (percent shift in demand − percent shift in supply) ÷ (elasticity of supply − elasticity of demand). Card C, "Maple syrup in Ellery County". Over one year the price of a jar rose 40 percent and jars sold rose 3 percent. Card D, "Two stories about syrup". A food writer says syrup became a food trend. A producer says a warm spring cut the sap harvest.
Now Zee adds card B to card A. What does card B suggest about Larkton's e-bike sales next year, and why?
- Sales still cannot be predicted, since two shifts in opposite directions leave quantity open
- Sales rise, since buyers' 20 percent shift is twice the size of the makers' 10 percent cut
- Sales fall and the price falls too, since buyers this responsive will not pay a higher price
- Sales fall slightly: buyers respond so strongly that the price rise cuts more sales than the lanes add
Use this
Cards A and B on U.S. gasoline (card A is real data; card B is a summary in our words). Card A, "U.S. gasoline and two shifters". Who made it: the U.S. Energy Information Administration (gasoline and crude oil, annual averages) and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics through FRED (unemployment, annual average), read November 14, 2026. Table, columns Year | Regular gasoline, dollars a gallon | Gasoline used, thousand barrels a day | Brent crude oil, dollars a barrel | Unemployment rate, percent: 2014 | 3.358 | 8,921 | 98.97 | 6.2; 2015 | 2.429 | 9,178 | 52.32 | 5.3; 2016 | 2.143 | 9,317 | 43.64 | 4.9; 2019 | 2.604 | 9,309 | 64.30 | 3.7; 2020 | 2.168 | 8,049 | 41.96 | 8.1; 2021 | 3.008 | 8,816 | 70.86 | 5.4; 2022 | 3.951 | 8,810 | 100.93 | 3.7. Note in our words: gasoline used is product supplied, a measure of use; prices are not adjusted for inflation. Card B, "Reading the table". Summary in our words, not a quotation: Crude oil is the main input to gasoline, so its price moves the supply of gasoline. Jobs and incomes move the demand for driving. A change in the gasoline price alone moves buyers along one demand curve.
A writer says that demand alone, as jobs returned, pushed the 2022 gasoline price up. Esme looks for the evidence on the cards that most undercuts the writer. Which is it?
- Crude rose 42 percent in 2022, so a fall in supply, not a rise in demand, explains the whole price rise
- The 2022 price was the highest on the card, so demand must have reached a record that year
- Use was flat, 8,816 to 8,810, while a rise in demand alone would have raised use with the price
- Unemployment fell from 5.4 to 3.7 percent, so more people were driving to jobs in 2022