Not a Zero-Sum Game - Ludwig von Mises Institute

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Foreword by Donald Boudreaux THE PARADOX OF EXCHANGE During a lunchtime conversation among economics graduate students at New York University in the early 1980s, a top PhD student wondered, "what's the big deal about comparative advantage? It's just arithmetic." I was in that lunch group and recall my jaw figuratively falling to the floor when I heard this remark. "What's the big deal?!" I thought to myself. "How can he make such an uninformed comment?" I'd studied economics long enough to know that comparative advantage is fundamental to any human economy-not just to market economies or only to international trade, but to human society itself. And yet, being just a first-year graduate student I was then unable to articulate clearly an explanation of comparative advantage. Although I tried to mount a case for the centrality of comparative advantage, I failed. How I wish that I had then at my fingertips the brilliant monograph that you now hold in your hands. I would have given it to my fellow graduate students and asked each one to read it, confident that each would come away with a deeper understanding and appreciation of comparative advantage. (By the way, I would have given this monograph also to several of my economics professors at NYU. Many of them, too, would have learned much from it.)
NOT A ZERO-SUM GAME Manuel Ayau has long emphasized the centrality of comparative advantage, rightly counseling scholars that society cannot be understood without first grasping the logic of comparative advantage. Having spent much of his astonishingly productive and rich life reflecting on comparative advantage and explaining it again and again and again-with the patience of Job-to all who would listen, he offers here his crystalline thoughts on this foundational principle of human society. I know of no explication of comparative advantage that equals this one in clarity and concision. Even if you think that you already know all you can possibly know about this matter-even if you are confident that you understand comparative advantage completely-read this work and enjoy the thrill that conies from the awareness of having your understanding sharpened and deepened. Whatever his other talents (and they are many), Mr. Ayau enjoys a comparative advantage at explaining comparative advantage! Donald J. Boudreaux, chair Department of Economics George Mason University Fairfax, Virginia
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Page 5 and 6: A short version of this essay, enti
Page 8: Acknowledgments Many thanks for the
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Page 16 and 17: Foreword by Roger Miller THE PARADO
Page 18: THE PARADOX OF EXCHANGE Law and Eco
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Page 23 and 24: NOT A ZERO-SUM GAME Sir William Bla
Page 25 and 26: NOT A ZERO-SUM GAME It is not clear
Page 27 and 28: NOT A ZERO-SUM GAME the game is ove
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Page 31 and 32: NOT A ZERO-SUM GAME why it behooves
Page 33 and 34: NOT A ZERO-SUM GAME We will measure
Page 35 and 36: NOT A ZERO-SUM GAME Obviously, when
Page 37 and 38: NOT A ZERO-SUM GAME managerial abil
Page 39 and 40: NOT A ZERO-SUM GAME It is true that
Page 41 and 42: k %&> Trade as a Distributor of Wea
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Page 48 and 49: Epilogue Property Rights Matter In
Page 50 and 51: Foreign Exchange Comments on Trade
Page 52 and 53: different in each place. Although t
Page 54 and 55: PART 11 COMMENTS ON TRADE BETWEEN "
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Page 58 and 59: Now suppose that the government of
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NOT A ZERO-SUM GAME tially the case
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NOT A ZERO-SUM GAME While far from
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NOT A ZERO-SUM GAME injurious U.S.
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NOT A ZERO-SUM GAME Free trade mean
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NOT A ZERO-SUM GAME pally steel and
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NOT A ZERO-SUM GAME As the delinque
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Selected Bibliography Basti-at, Frk
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Not a Zero-Sum Game - Ludwig von Mises Institute

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