Concept of comparative advantage, International Economics

Assignment Help:

The Concept of Comparative Advantage is explained below:

To illustrate the concept of the comparative advantage, we take the instance of two equi-sized equi-endowment countries, which are US and UK. US produces 40 and 60 units of cotton and food p.a. respectively (using all available resources), while the UK produces 30 and 20 units of cotton and food p.a. respectively (using all the available resources). Clearly, the US has complete advantage in the production of both cotton and food. By absolute advantage it is meant that the US is more efficient at producing food and cotton both than the UK. But, upon computing the opportunity costs of producing cotton and food in the either country, is revealed that the opportunity cost of producing one unit of the cotton in the US is 1.5 units of food, while the opportunity cost of producing one unit of food in the US is 0.67 units of cotton. Similarly the opportunity cost of producing one unit of the cotton in the UK is 0.67 units of food, whereas the opportunity cost of producing one unit of food in the UK is 1.5 units of cotton. Hence, the US has a lower opportunity cost (comparative advantage) in production of food while the UK has a lower opportunity cost (comparative advantage) in production of cotton. By specializing in the goods/commodities they have comparative advantage in and then trading between them, both the countries can improve their consumption possibilities beyond those implied by autarky (that is a situation of no trade where the PPF and CPF are the same).

 




 


Related Discussions:- Concept of comparative advantage

Trade theory, what you do understand by the term effective rate of protecti...

what you do understand by the term effective rate of protection

Fixed versus floating exchange rates, 1 Answer True or False. Brief explain...

1 Answer True or False. Brief explain your answer. No credit without explanation. a Bretton Woods. During the Bretton Woods system countries with large current account surpluses

Define foreign direct investment, 1. Explain why many Asian countries set u...

1. Explain why many Asian countries set up Export Processing Zones and why China set up Special Economic Zones. What are the similarities and differences between EPZs and SEZs?

Explain why east asian countries have done so well, Q. Explain why East Asi...

Q. Explain why East Asian countries have done so well relative to South American countries. Answer: Generally the reasons are less moral hazard less government debt to forei

How did the european single currency evolve, Q. How did the Europea...

Q. How did the European single currency evolve? Answer: The answer is related to the crumple of Bretton Woods and the European Currency reform of 1969-1978. The Werner

Exchange rate between the dollar and the euro, Q. What is the real ex...

Q. What is the real exchange rate between the dollar and the euro equal to? Answer: Let actual dollar/euro exchange rate q$/ENominal exchange rate E$/EPrice of an unchan

Explain why the exchange rate model, Q. Explain why the exchange ra...

Q. Explain why the exchange rate model based on PPP is a long-run theory. Answer: PPP theory is a financial approach to the exchange rate. It is a long-run theory for

Apparent lack of national consistency on this issue, Q. The United States ...

Q. The United States seems at times to have a totally schizophrenic attitude toward protectionism. The United States was the country that proposed the establishment of the World

Independent variable, Foreign Direct Investment Theoretical Definition:...

Foreign Direct Investment Theoretical Definition: The causal (independent) variable is the inward Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the technology sector. Foreign direct i

Float-rate regime against non-euro currencies, Q. Explain why after, say No...

Q. Explain why after, say Norway unilaterally pegs the krone to the euro, domestic money market disturbances will no longer affect domestic output despite the continuation of float

Write Your Message!

Captcha
Free Assignment Quote

Assured A++ Grade

Get guaranteed satisfaction & time on delivery in every assignment order you paid with us! We ensure premium quality solution document along with free turntin report!

All rights reserved! Copyrights ©2019-2020 ExpertsMind IT Educational Pvt Ltd