A comparative advantage can be something inherent, in the way a person’s height might make them better at basketball. It can also be developed and improved, the way one basketball player can become ...

David Ricardo, a Scottish economist, made a perceptive observation that a few individuals, firms, or countries can gain from trading, even if one of them is objectively the best in all activities.

There are two principal theories of why countries trade: comparative advantage and increasing returns to scale. Which is most important in practice? The large volume of intra‐OECD trade is frequently ...

This is a preview. Log in through your library . Abstract We exploit Japan’s sudden and complete opening up to international trade in the 1860s to test the empirical validity of one of the oldest and ...