In a capitalist society where competitive markets are encouraged and plentiful, as in the United States, the government still has the ability to influence the behavior of markets through legislative policy. These influencers can take many forms, including passing laws that restrict access to certain products. Such is the case with Hawai'i County's recent decision to change the legal age for purchasing tobacco products from eighteen, the status quo for most of the country, to twenty-one.[1] Such a change in policy has economic impacts on the tobacco market in Hawai'i County, which include a decrease in overall demand and social surplus. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay A simple economic model is used to represent these impacts on the tobacco market. The model includes the supply and demand curves for tobacco products at the original status quo with the legal drinking age of eighteen and the adjusted demand curve to represent the demand for tobacco at the new legal drinking age of twenty-one . The model is based on some basic assumptions, the first of which is that the new restrictive law will actually be enforced. If the new era of consumption is not applied, the same number of consumers will buy tobacco and it will not be possible to identify any economic change in the market. Second, it must be assumed that no major change in population will occur in Hawai'i County. A large change in population can lead to a shift in demand that is not caused by the implementation of the new law. To show general trends, the specific price and quantity of tobacco products have been omitted. The shift in demand to the left, represented by D2, is caused by the elimination of all tobacco users between the ages of eighteen and twenty from the market. The shift is small due to the relative rigidity of demand for tobacco due to its addictive nature. Due to the addictive nature of tobacco, many underage users may find ways to continue purchasing tobacco on the market through other legal buyers or by using false identification. Others may purchase their tobacco in another market with less restrictive laws such as a neighboring county or an unregulated black market, once again producing a shift in demand for Hawai'i County's tobacco market. The shift in demand translates into a loss of social surplus, which mainly affects consumers, as indicated by the shaded part of the graph. The extremely negative effect on the consumer is logical considering that a part of the consumer population is completely legally restricted from the market by this law. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom EssayThe model shows that Hawai'i County's new tobacco policy, which changes the legal age for purchasing tobacco from the status quo, from eighteen to twenty-one, will have an overall negative effect on the tobacco market as a whole. This is due to the decrease in the number of total buyers in the market. This model, however, cannot predict the long-term effects of the policy, which are much more open to speculation. Underage consumers may find new ways to purchase tobacco at the market, or tobacco sellers may choose to flout the law to sell more. Both.