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International Trade - Theory and Policy, 2010a

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Thus a good way to think about how the model works is to imagine that workers go to work in their<br />

respective industries <strong>and</strong> produce wine or cheese. At the end of the day, they are paid not in dollars but in<br />

goods. The cheese workers’ wage is a quantity of cheese. The wine workers earn a quantity of wine. Since<br />

workers, as consumers, presumably will desire some wine <strong>and</strong> some cheese for their evening dinner, they<br />

must first go to a market to trade some of their wages (goods) for some of the other goods available at the<br />

market.<br />

In autarky, cheese workers <strong>and</strong> wine workers come together on the domestic market to trade their goods.<br />

The autarky price ratio or terms of trade represents the amount of wine that exchanges per unit of cheese<br />

on the domestic barter market.<br />

KEY TAKEAWAY<br />

<br />

The autarky terms of trade (cheese in terms of wine) equals the opportunity cost (of cheese in terms of<br />

wine).<br />

EXERCISE<br />

1. Use the information below to answer the following questions.<br />

TABLE 2.11 LABOR PRODUCTIVITY IN ITALY AND GERMANY<br />

Beer Pizza<br />

Italian Labor Productivity<br />

6 bottles/hour 6 pizzas/hour<br />

German Labor Productivity 5 bottles/hour 3 pizzas/hour<br />

1. Which country has the absolute advantage in beer? In pizza? Explain why.<br />

2. Explain why Italy’s comparative advantage good is the one it can produce ìmost better,î while<br />

Germany’s comparative advantage good is the one it can produce ìleast worse.î<br />

3. What autarky price ratios (PB/PP) would prevail in each country? Explain. Be sure to include<br />

units.<br />

Saylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/books<br />

Saylor.org<br />

105

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