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Asymmetric Information, Bargaining, and Comparative Advantage in Trade Relationships: An Interactive Game
Author(s) -
Chiang Eric P.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
southern economic journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.762
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 2325-8012
pISSN - 0038-4038
DOI - 10.1002/j.2325-8012.2007.tb00855.x
Subject(s) - comparative advantage , negotiation , grasp , production (economics) , microeconomics , economics , function (biology) , competitive advantage , industrial organization , computer science , international trade , sociology , management , programming language , social science , evolutionary biology , biology
The concept of comparative advantage is a fundamental tool in economics. Yet, it is a concept that new students of economics frequently find challenging to grasp. In this interactive classroom game, I highlight the three essential lessons of comparative advantage: (i) individuals can have a comparative advantage (and thus benefit from specialization) in an activity despite not having an absolute advantage, (ii) the gains from specialization are greatest when individuals have the most heterogeneous skill sets, and (iii) the extent of each individual's share of the gains from specialization is often left to negotiation, with asymmetric information playing an influential role. This classroom game allows each player to possess a unique production function, thus better resembling the diverse pool of potential trade partners that characterizes real life.