All Posts Tagged With: "comparative advantage"
The Family Stone: Cavemen, Trade, and Comparative Advantage
Imagine a Stone Age family: Papa Stone, Mama Stone, and their two little pebbles. Suppose that, as befits pre-women’s-lib Neanderthals, Papa Stone is initially more competent at every prehistoric survival skill: hunting, fishing, nut-and-berry gathering, firebuilding, tool-making. Despite his superior talents, it does not make sense for other family members to sit around waiting for him to [...]
30Nov2011 | Richard W. Fulmer | 1 comment | ContinuedSocial Cooperation
At FEE’s Advanced Austrian Economics Seminar last summer, more than one speaker mentioned that Ludwig von Mises considered a different title for the book we know as Human Action. The other title? Social Cooperation. I’ve heard that story before, but this time it got me thinking: Would the free-market movement have been perceived differently by [...]
26Oct2011 | Sheldon Richman | 5 comments | ContinuedMarkets and Human Excellence
While not all forms of excellence command the salaries that athletes and musicians command, each serves other people in its own way and brings some reward in the marketplace.
23Jun2011 | Steven Horwitz | 8 comments | ContinuedFree Trade: History and Perception
In the natural sciences, such as physics, there is a large number of statements that can be made about the world that command general assent from scientists and those with a scientific education. This is not true to anything like the same degree in the human and social sciences, such as economics and history. The [...]
1Mar2006 | Stephen Davies | 0 comments | ContinuedFree Trade and the Climb Out of Poverty
Over the thousands of years of human history, poverty and early death have been the norm, with comfort and longevity the exceptions. The improvements in the human condition, at least on average, seen over the course of the twentieth century dwarf the improvements of the previous centuries combined. By virtually any measure one can imagine, [...]
1Mar2005 | Steven Horwitz | 0 comments | ContinuedThere’s Still Work to Do
Free trade is again under assault. If there is one reason for the perennial attack it is likely the one Frédéric Bastiat made so much of: the failure to look for what is “unseen.” The costs of free trade (temporary job loss, closed firms) are easily traced to the free movement of goods, services, and [...]
1Apr2004 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Virtues of Sweatshops
Stefan Spath was formerly executive director of FEE. An acquaintance said to me the other day how appalling it is to see so many Americans revel in the gifts received during the holidays. “We should be ashamed of ourselves,” he lamented. “Most of this stuff was manufactured in sweatshops.” Such a misinformed notion shouldn’t go [...]
1Mar2002 | Stefan Spath | 2 comments | ContinuedDoes Trade Exploit the Poorest of the Poor?
Roughly 180 years ago David Ricardo discovered comparative advantage. He showed that trade benefits both trading partners even when one is less productive than the other across all activities. There are gains from trade and specialization even in that case.
1Sep2001 | Russell Roberts | 0 comments | ContinuedHow the Theory of Comparative Advantage Saved My Marriage
Ted Roberts is a freelance writer in Huntsville, Alabama, who often writes on public-policy issues. My neighbor is a kindly man with the pink and white complexion of a healthy turnip—and the generosity of a squash plant in dark loam. He has two green thumbs and big hands with long fingers obviously designed to pluck [...]
1Nov2000 | Ted Roberts | 0 comments | ContinuedComparative Advantage Continued
The concept of comparative advantage, which I began discussing last month, is a straightforward application of opportunity cost and is almost embarrassingly simple. Certainly people have no trouble understanding and recognizing the importance of this concept in their own personal lives.
1Nov1999 | Dwight R. Lee | 0 comments | ContinuedComparative Advantage
One of the most powerful and straightforward economic concepts is “comparative advantage.” As important and simple as this concept is, however, it seldom seems to inform public discussions of international trade. Almost everyone “knows” that we can’t compete with countries that have cheap labor—if we have free trade with such countries either wages will be [...]
1Oct1999 | Dwight R. Lee | 12 comments | ContinuedJapan: Who Governs? The Rise of the Development State
“Trade between the United States and Japan can be fair only if we level the playing field.” So say countless politicians and others who decry the obstacles Japan erects to sales of American products in Japanese markets. Threats last year to impose 100 percent tariffs on Japanese luxury car imports are just one of many [...]
1Feb1996 | Russell Shannon | 0 comments | Continued-
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