Compare and contrast Absolute and Comparative Advantage – and discuss how each relates to gains from trade.

Background We all trade! It is an important part of who we are and what we do. We trade our leisure time to work for our wages. We trade our wages for consumer items like corn flakes and Lamborghinis, and in every one of our trades we choose the thing we believe will benefit us the most. Our textbook tells us: We live in a global marketplace. The food on your table might include fresh fruit from Chile, cheese from France, and bottled water from Scotland. Your wireless phone might have been made in Taiwan or Korea. The clothes you wear might be designed in Italy and manufactured in China. The toys you give to a child might have come from India. The car you drive might come from Japan, Germany, or Korea. The gasoline in the tank might be refined from crude oil from Saudi Arabia, Mexico, or Nigeria . . . We are all linked by international trade, and the volume of that trade has grown dramatically in the last few decades (p. 676). International trade.png Please watch this brief video on international trade: International Trade and Supply Chains (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. International Trade and Supply Chains And now just one more eye opening little video I think you’ll quite enjoy: Economics is Fun, Part 13: International Trade (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. Economics is Fun, Part 13: International Trade Prompt Now with these things in mind – and having read and studied Chapters 33 and 34 of our text – Please choose ONE of the following. Your response should be 600 words long in the body of your paper (not including your header and resources). 1) Compare and contrast Absolute and Comparative Advantage – and discuss how each relates to gains from trade. 2) Explain how trade barriers save jobs in protected industries, but only by costing jobs in other industries. 3) What might account for the dramatic increase in international trade over the past 50 years?