Question

Consider two neighboring island countries called Arcadia and Dolorium. They each have 4 million labor hours available per week that they can use to produce jeans, corn, or a combination of both. The following table shows the amount of jeans or corn that can be produced using 1 hour of labor.

Country Jeans (Pairs per hour of labor) Corn(Bushels per hour of labor)
Arcadia 5 10
Dolorium 4 16

Initially, suppose Arcadia uses 1 million hours of labor per month to produce corn and 3 million hours per month to produce jeans, while Dolorium uses 3 million hours of labor per month to produce corn and 1 million hours per month to produce jeans. Consequently, Arcadia produces 8 million bushels of corn and 48 million pairs of jeans, and Dolorium produces 15 million bushels of corn and 20 million pairs of jeans. 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 corn and jeans it produces.

Arcadia's opportunity cost of producing 1 pair of jeans is _____ of corn, and Dolorium's opportunity cost of producing 1 pair of jeans is _____ of corn. Therefore, ____ has a comparative advantage in the production of jeans, and ____ has a comparative advantage in the production of corn.

Answer 1

Arcadia's opportunity cost of producing 1 pair of jeans is 2 bushels of corn, and Dolorium's opportunity cost of producing 1 pair of jeans is 4 bushels of corn. Therefore, Arcadia has a comparative advantage in the production of jeans, and Dolorium has a comparative advantage in the production of corn.

Step-by-step explanation:

maximum production

jeans corn

Arcadia 20 40

Dolorium 16 64

initial production

jeans corn

Arcadia 15 10

Dolorium 4 48

Arcadia's opportunity costs:

jeans = 40 / 20 = 2 bushels of corn

corn = 20 / 40 = 0.5 pairs of jeans

Dolorium's opportunity costs:

jeans = 64 / 16 = 4 bushels of corn

corn = 16 / 64 = 0.25 pairs of jeans