Trade increases among two countries can take several forms. One view is that each country becomes more specialized and therefore exports and imports different goods (e.g. France sells wine and Germany sells beer). How does this view affect the OCA criteria?
Initially, suppose Arcadia uses 1 million hours of labor per month to produce jeans and 3 million hours per month to produce rye, while Felicidad uses 3 million hours of labor per month to produce jeans and 1 million hours per month to produce rye. Consequently, Felicidad produces 24 million pairs of jeans and 32 million bushels of rye, and Arcadia produces 12 million pairs of jeans and 72 million bushels of rye. Assume there are no other countries willing to trade goods, so, in the absence of trade between these two countries, each country consumes the amount of jeans and rye it produces.
Felicidad's opportunity cost of producing 1 pair of jeans is _____of rye, and Arcadia's opportunity cost of producing 1 pair of jeans is _____ of rye. Therefore, _____ has a comparative advantage in the production of jeans, and ____ has a comparative advantage in the production of rye.
Suppose that each country completely specializes in the production of the good in which it has a comparative advantage, producing only that good. In this case, the country that produces jeans will produce ______ millions pairs per month, and the country that produces rye will produce ______ millions bushels per month.
In the following table, enter each country's production decision on the third row of the table (marked "Production").
Suppose the country that produces jeans trades 26 million pairs of jeans to the other country in exchange for 78 million bushels of rye.
In the following table, select the amount of each good that each country exports and imports in the boxes across the row marked "Trade Action," and enter each country's final consumption of each good on the line marked "Consumption."
When the two countries did not specialize, the total production of jeans was 36 million pairs per month, and the total production of rye was 104 million bushels per month. Because of specialization, the total production of jeans has increased by ____ million pairs per month, and the total production of rye has increased by _____ million bushels per month.
Because the two countries produce more jeans and more rye under specialization, each country is able to gain from trade.
Calculate the gains from tradeâthat is, the amount by which each country has increased its consumption of each good relative to the first row of the table. In the following table, enter this difference in the boxes across the last row (marked "Increase in Consumption").
