EconGuru Economics Guide » Goods and services

Goods and services

Goods and services are products or output of an economy, supplied by suppliers to satisfy demand in the market. Goods are tangible material items, and services are intangible tasks done in exchange for money.

Goods differ with services in 3 ways:

• Goods are products with physical presence such as battey, while services are intangible tasks like hair styling.
• Goods have some degree of durability beyond purchase; services do not.
• The production and consumption of goods are separate, but those of services happen at the same time.

Goods basically come in 2 forms, consumer goods and producer goods. Consumer goods are simply food, clothing, toys, CDs and so forth that cater to individual human and households needs and wants. Producer goods on the other hand, is for corporate entities to further producer products and services. However, while housing might seem to you a consumer goods cause' it is what individuals and households need, it's really a producer goods by its nature of investment.

Some common examples of services include education, health care, transportation, and more.