Scarcity is the fundamental economic problem of having seemingly unlimited human needs and wants in a world of limited resources. This constraint necessitates choices about what goods and services are produced, how they are produced, and for whom they are produced. Given this context, the best statement that describes the impact of scarcity is:
Economies can work to provide more goods and services.
Scarcity prompts economies to find efficient ways to allocate resources, often through markets, policies, and innovation. It leads to efforts to increase production, improve efficiency, and create solutions to meet as many needs and wants as possible within resource constraints. Although scarcity does drive up prices in some cases, it is primarily the driving force behind the fundamental structure and function of economies. Governments do try to address citizen wants, and consumers do sometimes pay higher prices, but these are results of the broader impact of scarcity, which is the ongoing effort to balance limited resources with unlimited desires.