Scarcity in Economics

In economic theory, scarcity is a phenomenon in which there are limited resources but there are unlimited wants. The scarcity phenomenon plays an important role in the field of economy, as it creates one of the most difficult problems. There are many resources which face scarce in the world. This theory basically focuses on the scarcity problems that are demand and supply, efficient utilization and resource allocation of resources and inputs. Scarcity helps to determine the price of a resource or product. More the scarce of a product higher is its price, whereas if there is less scarcity in amount of a product makes a product cheaper. Scarcity also helps in making appropriate decision on distribution of a particular product because scarce product or resource becomes limited and then proper distribution is required in order to achieve equality in the society. For example, suppose there are two goods poultry egg and ostrich egg that attracts zero cost for producing, however, getting ostrich egg is much more difficult than getting poultry egg because ostrich is a much rare bird in comparison with poultry. Thus, ostrich egg requires more time and other resources to bring them in the market and therefore concept of scarcity is significant to the economy.
The difference between the free resources and scarce resource is there is existence of free resources when the available quantity is seen to be exceeding the desired use at a zero price, as there is no market for a free resource, the notion of market surplus really has no relevance whereas a scarce resource exists if the desired use exceeds available quantity at a zero price.