Question

Gains from trade

Answer 1

Answer:

Contente's opportunity cost of producing 1 bushel of rye is 0.5 of jeans, and Dolorium's opportunity cost of producing 1 bushel of rye is 0.25 of jeans. Therefore, DOLORIUM has a comparative advantage in the production of rye, and CONTENTE has a comparative advantage in the production of jeans.

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 rye will produce 64 million bushels per month, and the country that produces jeans will produce 24 million pairs per month.

Suppose the country that produces rye trades 54 million bushels of rye to the other country in exchange for 18 million pairs of jeans.

Dolorium:

Export 54 million bushels of rye

Consume 10 million bushels of rye

Import 18 million pairs of jeans

Contente:

Export 18 million pairs of jeans

Consume 6 million pairs of jeans

Import 54 million bushels of rye

Before specialization, the total production of rye = 36 + 16 = 52 million bushels, and the total production of jeans = 6 + 12 = 18 million pairs.

Because of specialization, the total production of rye has increased by 12 million bushels per month, and the total production of jeans has increased by 6 million pairs per month.

Calculate the gains from trade—that is, the amount by which each country has increased its consumption of each good relative to the first row of the table.

Contente:

Before specialization and trade, produced and consumed 6 million pairs of jeans and 36 million bushels of rye.

After specialization and trade, consumed 54 million bushels of rye and 6 million pairs of jeans.

Gain from trade is 18 million bushels of rye.

Dolorium:

Before specialization and trade, produced and consumed 12 million pairs of jeans and 16 million bushels of rye.

After specialization and trade, consumed 10 million bushels of rye and 18 million pairs of jeans.

Gain from trade is -2 million bushels of rye and 6 million pairs of jeans.

Explanation:

There is a mistake in the question, since Contente's production of jeans must be 6 per hour and its production of rye should be 12 bushels per hour. That is the only way that it can produce 6 million pairs of jeans and 36 million bushels of rye. Something similar happens with Dolorium, it must be able to produce 16 bushels of rye per hour and 4 pairs of jeans per hour in order to produce 12 million pairs of jeans and 16 million bushels of rye.

Country               Rye        Jeans

Contente              12             6

Dolorium               16            4

Contente's opportunity cost of producing rye = 6 / 12 = 0.5 pairs of jeans.

Dolorium's opportunity cost of producing rye = 4 / 16 = 0.25 pairs of jeans.

Dolorium's production of rye = 16 bushels x 4,000,000 labor hours = 64,000,000 bushels of rye.

Contente's production of jeans = 6 pairs x 4,000,000 labor hours = 24,000,000 pairs of jeans