Chapter 2: Q 2.5 (page 27)
Distinguish between absolute and comparative advantage.
Comparative Advantage refers to lower opportunity cost whereas Absolute Advantage refers to the production of more units of goods with the given labor and input prices.
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You can wash, fold, and iron a basket of laundry in two hours and prepare a meal in one hour. Your roommate can wash, fold, and iron a basket of laun-
dry in three hours and prepare a meal in one hour. Who has the absolute advantage in laundry, and who has an absolute advantage in meal preparation? Who has the comparative advantage in laundry, and who has a comparative advantage in meal preparation?
Using only the concept of comparative advantage, evaluate this statement: “A professor with a Ph.D. in physics should never mow his or her own lawn, because this would fail to take into account the professor's comparative advantage."
You and a friend decide to spend \(100 each on concert tickets. Each of you alternatively could have spent the \)100 to purchase a textbook, a meal at a highly-rated local restaurant, or several Internet movie downloads. As you are on the way to the concert, your friend tells you that if she had not bought the concert ticket, she would have opted for a restaurant meal, and you reply that you otherwise would have downloaded movies. Identify the relevant opportunity costs for you and your friend for the concert tickets that you purchased. Explain briefly.
In spite of the lower opportunity cost of rail-gun projectiles instead of missiles, does the U.S. Navy continue to face an increasing additional cost, in terms of forgone ship production, to obtain additional weapons? Explain briefly.
How must the dollar values of the opportunity costs of time compare for a typical purchaser of a vehicle converted by Becker Automotive, Inc., versus commuters who do not purchase them? Explain briefly.
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