ECONOM 1014 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Comparative Advantage, Absolute Advantage, Opportunity Cost
Document Summary
Trade makes people better off when preferences differ, trade increases productivity through specialization and the division of. Absolute advantage: the ability to produce the same good using fewer inputs than another producer. The (opportunity) cost of a shirt in the united. States is one computer but the (opportunity) cost of a shirt in mexico is just one-sixth of a computer. Thus, even though mexico is less productive than the united states, mexico has a lower cost of producing shirts! Free market: all workers of the same type will earn the same wage and the same good will tend to sell for the same price everywhere. Only when workers of the same type are paid the same wage is there no incentive for workers to move. Otherwise, if workers in different fields of manufacturing (computers and shirts) are paid different wages, they"ll keep wanting to move to the job that"s paid the best.