Question

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

Country	Rye	Jeans
	(Bushels per hour of labor)	(Pairs per hour of labor)
Felicidad	4	16
Contente	6	12

Initially, suppose Contente uses 1 million hours of labor per week to produce rye and 3 million hours per week to produce jeans, while Felicidad uses 3 million hours of labor per week to produce rye and 1 million hours per week to produce jeans. Consequently, Felicidad produces 12 million bushels of rye and 16 million pairs of jeans, and Contente produces 6 million bushels of rye and 36 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 rye and jeans it produces.

Felicidad's opportunity cost of producing 1 bushel of rye is4 pairs of jeans, and Contente's opportunity cost of producing 1 bushel of rye is2 pairs of jeans. Therefore,Contente has a comparative advantage in the production of rye, andFelicidad 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 producemillion bushels per week, and the country that produces jeans will producemillion pairs per week.

In the following table, enter each country's production decision on the third row of the table (marked "Production").

Suppose the country that produces rye trades 14 million bushels of rye to the other country in exchange for 42 million pairs of jeans.

In the following table, select the amount of each good that each country exports and imports in the boxes across the row marked "Trade Action," and enter each country's final consumption of each good on the line marked "Consumption."

When the two countries did not specialize, the total production of rye was 18 million bushels per week, and the total production of jeans was 52 million pairs per week. Because of specialization, the total production of rye has increased bymillion bushels per week, and the total production of jeans has increased bymillion pairs per week.

Because the two countries produce more rye and more jeans under specialization, each country is able to gain from trade.

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. In the following table, enter this difference in the boxes across the last row (marked "Increase in Consumption").

	Felicidad		Contente
	Rye	Jeans	Rye	Jeans
	(Millions of bushels)	(Millions of pairs)	(Millions of bushels)	(Millions of pairs)
Without Trade
Production	12	16	6	36
Consumption	12	16	6	36
With Trade
Production
Trade action
Consumption
Gains from Trade
Increase in Consumption

Answer 1

Following shows the Output table when each country uses 4 million hours for rye and for jeans.

	Rye (Million)	Jeans (Million)
Felicidad	4 x 4 = 16	16 x 4 = 64
Contente	6 x 4 = 24	12 x 4 = 48

(1) Opportunity cost (OC)

In Felicidad, OC of rye = 64/16 = 4 jeans

In Contente, OC of rye = 48/24 = 2 jeans

(2) So,

Contente has comparative advantage in rye (because OC of rye is lower: 2 < 4).

Felicidad has comparative advantage in jeans.

(3)

Country making rye (Contente) will produce 24 million rye.

Country making jeans (Felicidad) will produce 64 million jeans.

(4) Because of specialization,

Production of rye has increased by 6 million (= 24 million - 18 million).

Production of jeans has increased by 12 million (= 64 million - 52 million).

(5) Contente trades (exports) 14 million rye in exchange of (imports) 42 million jeans.

	FELICIDAD		CONTENTE
	Rye	Jeans	Rye	Jeans
WITHOUT TRADE:
Prod. & Consumption	12	16	6	36
WITH TRADE
Production	0	64	24	0
Trade Action:	Import:	Export:	Export:	Import:
	14 Rye	42 Jeans	14 Rye	42 jeans
Consumption	14	22	10	42
GAIN FROM TRADE
Increase in Consumption	2	6	4	6