Because of coronavirus, store shelves have been swept clean of face masks. At first,

demand vastly outpaced supply as the pandemic caught sellers off guard. Then, sellers

adapted their production lines to the point where production met demand.

Considering the market of face masks:

a. By means of a graph (without using numbers but only sketching demand and supply

curves), illustrate the effect of the initial change in consumer preferences when

supply had yet to catch up, in terms of quantity demanded, excess of demand and

the following price dynamics (i.e., the new equilibrium price).

b. Discuss one government policy that could have allowed consumers to buy face

masks at cheaper prices.

c. Again, by means of a graph, illustrate the effect of the change in sellers' production

lines following the change in demand in terms of quantity demanded and price.