Box in large town reportedly reveals shortage (8)

I believe the answer is:

sparsity

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'shortage' is the definition.
(I know that shortage can be written as sparsity)

'box in large town reportedly' is the wordplay.
'box in' becomes 'spar' (spar can mean to box. I am not sure about the 'in' bit.).
'large town' becomes 'city' (a city is a large settlement).
'reportedly' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'city' is a homophone of 'sity'.
'spar'+'sity'='SPARSITY'

'reveals' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for sparsity that I've seen before include "Thinly scattered state" , "Scantiness" , "Thinness of occurrence" , "Thinly-scattered state" , "Shortness of supply" .)

I've seen this clue in The Irish Times.

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