# Professor Adam Alter notes that scarcity is a powerful driver of consumption

1 Faculty News March 11, 2020 ![Marketplace Logo](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/marketplace_logo.jpg?itok=IIav3Udj)>

Excerpt from [Marketplace](https://www.marketplace.org/2020/03/11/why-are-people-stockpiling-toilet-paper/) -- "'Scarcity is a really powerful driver of consumption,” said [Adam Alter](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/faculty/bio/adam-alter), who teaches marketing and psychology at the New York University Stern School of Business. Alter said when you go to the store and see that there’s no toilet paper left, that signals that a product is in short supply."

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