3. The country that I have chosen is South Africa. Absolute advantage is a situation when a country has an advantage in producing an item; comparative advantage reflects a situation when a country does not have absolute advantage but on the balance of trade should produce that good anyway. Compared with the United States, South Africa has absolute advantages in some mineral production, but mainly in the cost of labor. A combination of high levels of unemployment and a weak rand (9.05 to the USD) make South Africa's labor costs substantially lower -- even educated, middle class South Africans earn less than their American counterparts. South Africa has a comparative advantage in some manufacturing and service industries, however. It might not be cheaper than some Asian nations, but it has good technological and managerial capabilities that could give it comparative advantage in a number of light manufacturing and resources industries.
The choices available to South Africa are bound to some extent by its geography, as it is far from major markets. It leverages absolute competitive advantage in technology and management in the African region, but struggles to use its comparative advantages to expand trade beyond that region. South Africa therefore...
Fed and the European Central Bank: A Comparison The Federal Reserve System of the United States and the Eurosystem of European Union are one of the key financial institutions of the global economy. Their policies and decisions influence almost every market in the world and this is the reason that an increased level of attention has been devoted towards these two central banks. The two systems have several differences as
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NPV This becomes more complicated when trying to determine the changes that would occur to the net present value of today's dollars, especially given the uncertainties involved with changes in the interest rate. On the one hand, the value of future dollars (i.e. today's dollars saved) is eroded by inflation, so a lower interest rate is detrimental to NPV; on the other hand, higher interest rates mean more lucrative lending and
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