Shortage
Plain definition
A shortage exists when quantity demanded exceeds quantity supplied at the prevailing price — buyers want more than sellers are offering. Shortages create upward pressure on prices and often appear as queues, empty shelves, or rationing.
In economics
Shortages arise whenever price sits below equilibrium: rent controls, price ceilings on essentials, sudden demand surges, or supply disruptions. In an unregulated market, the shortage itself pushes prices up until the market clears, which is why persistent shortages almost always signal some price restriction.
Example
If a government caps apartment rents at 8,000 rupees while the equilibrium rent is 12,000, tenants demand far more flats than landlords supply at that price. The result is a housing shortage: long waiting lists and key-money payments under the table.
Shortage is routinely confused with scarcity. Scarcity is the permanent condition of limited resources facing unlimited wants; it never goes away. A shortage is a specific market state — quantity demanded exceeding quantity supplied at a given price — that price changes can eliminate. Every shortage involves scarcity, but scarcity does not imply any shortage.