LAST AND FINAL PAPER

Alexandria Wright

ECO 2013

June 2, 2024

1. First, I would like to explain what an opportunity cost would be from my understanding. To calculate the opportunity cost, we must first see how much of the other goods we would have to let go to get one added on unit of the item that we are primarily focused on. Knowing what a comparative advantage is also helped me while solving answer number one. To obtain the comparative advantage, we would need to compare the tons of sugar and corn. Based on the table we can see that Joem has a comparative advantage while producing sugar and Annia comparative advantage would be in producing corn. Joem can likely produce 1 ton of sugar if he lets go of two tons of corn. On the other hand, Annia would have to let go 4 tons of corn to produce the exact same amount of sugar. This obviously lets us know why Joem can produce sugar at a lower cost. Annia can produce 1 ton of corn by giving up 4 tons of sugar, Joem would have to let go of only two tons of sugar to produce the same amount of corn as Annia. This ultimately results in Annia having a lower opportunity cost.

2. Annia should focus on sugar and Joem should focus on corn. While using the table to find out the comparative advantage I noticed that if we sacrifice sugar, we can produce 4tons of corn in both countries. However, in Annia if we sacrifice corn, we’ll be able produce 16 tons of sugar. We can also practice trading in the method due to both countries having the same comparative advantages with corn.

3.Trade would improve economic efficiency for both countries Annia and Joem because both would benefit from trading their product. Corn and sugar would both be on the market. We would no longer have to use comparative advantage to see who should keep selling their product. Each country would also benefit from trading because you both can now agree to sell the product at a lower price. It has been proven that trading has been beneficial to us economically over the years.

4.I have a comparative advantage over my peers at work because I am studying to become a paralegal. I am the only active student in the office, I am currently a paralegals assistant. This is a comparative advantage for me because I am sacrificing my time now for a larger opportunity. In comparison to the other employees. Due to the other employees not sacrificing their time to be able to grow in the legal profession, they may face the consequences of staying at the same pay grade for years, maybe even decades. I used comparative advantage to help me rationalize my life and take a step back to see what I was actually doing with my time. Now that I am making more cautious decisions with my time as far as staying focused on my career and degree, I’m sure just like a thriving company that’s been through many obstacles, I will thrive too !