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In both Costa Rica and Honduras, there is a boat manufacturing industry where canoes and sailboats are produced. In Costa Rica, it takes 15 hours to produce one canoe and 60 hours to produce one sailboat. In Honduras, it takes 15 hours to produce one canoe and 90 hours to produce one sailboat.

a) Costa Rica has a comparative advantage in producing canoes.

b) Costa Rica has a comparative advantage in producing sailboats.

c) Honduras has a comparative advantage in producing canoes.

d) Honduras has a comparative advantage in producing s

User Galit
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Final answer:

Comparative advantage is determined by which country has the lower opportunity cost in producing a good. Costa Rica has a comparative advantage in producing sailboats, giving up fewer canoes, and Honduras has a comparative advantage in producing canoes, giving up less of a sailboat. Thus, b) and c) are the correct answers.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine which country has a comparative advantage in producing canoes and sailboats, we compare the opportunity cost of producing these goods in Costa Rica and Honduras. Comparative advantage is when a country can produce a good at a lower opportunity cost than another country. The opportunity cost is what must be given up to produce an additional unit of a good.

For Costa Rica, the opportunity cost of producing one canoe is 15 hours, which could instead be used to produce 1/4 of a sailboat (since 60 hours are required for one sailboat, 15/60 = 1/4). For Honduras, the opportunity cost of producing one canoe is also 15 hours, but this could instead be used to produce 1/6 of a sailboat (since 90 hours are needed for one sailboat, 15/90 = 1/6).

Therefore, Costa Rica has a higher opportunity cost of 1/4 of a sailboat compared to Honduras' opportunity cost of 1/6 of a sailboat when producing a canoe. Conversely, for sailboats, Costa Rica has a lower opportunity cost of 4 canoes per sailboat (60/15), while Honduras has a higher opportunity cost of 6 canoes per sailboat (90/15).

Hence, Costa Rica has a comparative advantage in producing sailboats since it gives up fewer canoes to make one sailboat. On the other hand, Honduras has a comparative advantage in producing canoes since it gives up less of a sailboat to produce one canoe. Therefore, the correct answer is b) Costa Rica has a comparative advantage in producing sailboats and c) Honduras has a comparative advantage in producing canoes.

User Brian Rodriguez
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