Consider an island where people use sand dollars (shells) as currency. For simplicity, assume that people consume only one good: fish. Currently, there are 400 sand dollars in circulation and there are 200 fish purchased each year. Based on this information, what is the price of fish?Now, suppose that a change in climate leads to new sand dollars washing ashore, leaving a total of 500 sand dollars. If there are still 200 fish purchased each year, what is the new price of fish? In order to prevent inflation, what would have to happen to the amount of fish purchased each year?
What will be an ideal response?
When there are 400 sand dollars and 200 fish purchased in a year, this implies that each fish costs 2 sand dollars (= 400/200). When the number of sand dollars increases to 500, the price of fish will increase to 2.5 sand dollars per fish (=500/200). In order to prevent this inflation in fish prices, the number of fish would have to be increased to 250. That is, if there are 500 sand dollars and 250 fish, the price of fish would go back to 2 sand dollars per fish (=500/250).
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