Authors libby rittenberg 84
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doing other things. The result is a far greater quantity of goods and
services than would be available without this specialization.
Think about what life would be like without specialization. Imagine that
you are suddenly completely cut off from the rest of the economy. You
must produce everything you consume; you obtain nothing from anyone
else. Would you be able to consume what you consume now? Clearly not. It
is hard to imagine that most of us could even survive in such a setting. The
gains we achieve through specialization are enormous.
Nations specialize as well. Much of the land in the United States has a
comparative advantage in agricultural production and is devoted to that
activity. Hong Kong, with its huge population and tiny endowment of land,
allocates virtually none of its land to agricultural use; that option would be
too costly. Its land is devoted largely to nonagricultural use.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
A production possibilities curve shows the combinations of two goods
an economy is capable of producing.
The downward slope of the production possibilities curve is an
implication of scarcity.
The bowed-out shape of the production possibilities curve results
from allocating resources based on comparative advantage. Such an
allocation implies that the law of increasing opportunity cost will hold.
An economy that fails to make full and efficient use of its factors of
production will operate inside its production possibilities curve.
Specialization means that an economy is producing the goods and
services in which it has a comparative advantage.
Attributed to Libby Rittenberg and Timothy Tregarthen
Saylor URL: />
Saylor.org
84
