when markets aren t in a state of equilibrium they are said to be in disequilibrium disequilibrium can happen in a flash in a more stable market or can be a systematic characteristic of certain markets 
at times disequilibrium can spill over from one market to another for instance if there aren t enough transport companies or resources available to ship coffee internationally then the coffee supply for certain regions could be reduced affecting the equilibrium of coffee markets economists view many labor markets as being in disequilibrium due to how legislation and public policy protect people and their jobs or the amount they are compensated for their labor types of equilibriumeconomic equilibrium refers broadly to any state in the economy where forces are balanced this can be related to prices in a market where supply is equal to demand but can also represent the level of employment interest rates and so on the process by which equilibrium prices are reached is through a process of competition among sellers to be the low cost producer to grab the largest market share and also among buyers to snatch up the best deals general equilibrium considers the aggregation of forces occurring at the macro economic level and not the micro forces of individual markets it is a cornerstone of walrasian economics economists have found that there is a level of persistent unemployment that is observed when there is general equilibrium in an economy this is known as underemployment equilibrium and is predicted by keynesian economic theory lindahl equilibrium is a special case where in theory the optimal amount of public goods is produced and the cost of public goods is fairly shared among everyone it describes an ideal state rarely if ever achieved in reality but is used to help craft tax policy and is an important concept in welfare economics because prices may swing above or below the equilibrium level due to proximate changes in supply or demand at a given moment it is best to look at this effect over time known as intertemporal equilibrium the concept is also used in understanding how firms and households budget and smooth spending over longer time horizons in game theory nash equilibrium is a state of play whereby the optimal strategy involves considering the optimal strategy of the other player or opponent the prisoner s dilemma is a common situation in game theory that exemplifies the nash equilibrium example of equilibriuma store manufactures 1 000 spinning tops and retails them at 10 per piece but no one is willing to buy them at that price to pump up demand the store reduces its price to 8 there are 250 buyers at that price point in response the store further slashes the retail cost to 5 and garners five hundred buyers in total upon further reduction of the price to 2 one thousand buyers of the spinning top materialize at this price point supply equals demand hence 2 is the equilibrium price for the spinning tops 