SCARCE RESOURCE: A resource with an available quantity less than its desired use. Scarce resources are also called factors of production. Scarce goods are also termed economic goods. Scarce resources are used to produce scarce goods. Like the more general society-wide condition of scarcity, a given resource is scarce because it has a limited availability in combination with a greater (potentially unlimited) productive use. It's both of these that make it scarce. In other words, even though an item is quite limited it will not be a scarce resource if it has few if any uses (think pocket lint and free good).

     See also | scarcity | goods | services | factors of production | resources | market | exchange | price | opportunity cost | scarce good | free good | free resource |

SCARCE RESOURCE, AmosWEB GLOSS*arama, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2025. [Accessed: November 6, 2025].

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The marginal approach to analyzing a perfectly competitive firm's short-run profit maximizing production decision can be used to identify the division of total revenue among variable cost, fixed cost, and economic profit. The U-shaped cost curves used in this analysis provide all of the information needed on the cost side of the firm's decision. The demand curve facing the firm (which is also the firm's average revenue and marginal revenue curves) provides all of the information needed on the revenue side.

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Today, you are likely to spend a great deal of time visiting every yard sale in a 30-mile radius hoping to buy either a wall poster commemorating the moon landing or storage boxes for your winter clothes. Be on the lookout for rusty deck screws.
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