Individual and market demand schedule

The plan of the possible quantities that will be demanded at different prices by an individual is called Individual demand schedule. Such a demand schedule is purely hypothetical, but it serves to illustrate the First Law of Demand and Supply that more of a commodity will be bought at a lower than a higher price.

Price (Kshs)                                         Quantity demanded per week

                         20                                                                                             3

                                          18                                                                                             3½

                                          16                                                                                             4

                                          14                                                                                             5

                                          13                                                                                             6

                                          12                                                                                             7

                                          11                                                                                             8

                                          10                                                                                             9

Table 1: The individual demand schedule

Theoretically, the demand schedule of all consumers of a given commodity can be combined to form a composite demand schedule, representing the total demand for that commodity at various prices. This is called the Market demand schedule.

                             Price (in KShs)                                     Quantity demanded (per week)

                                                   20                                                                                             100,000

                                                   18                                                                                             120,000

                                                   16                                                                                             135,000

                                                   14                                                                                             150,000

                                                   13                                                                                             165,000

                                                   12                                                                                             180,000

                                                   11                                                                                             200,000

                                                   10                                                                                             240,000

                                 9                                                                                            300,000

                                 8                                                                                            350,000

Table 2: The market demand schedule.

These prices are called Demand Prices. Thus, the demand price for 200,000 units per week is KShs 11 per unit.