¶ … O'Sullivan and Sheffin pointed out (2003), an absolute advantage, in commercial terms, describes the advantage that a country has over another country when it comes to manufacturing a product or service, at the same level of resources. Since the level of resources is the same, the element that usual differentiates between the output is the labor productivity, which varies from country to country because of different reasons, including better organization, level of education, specialization etc.
Comparative advantage, on the other hand, places the issue in the realm of competitive costs and accepts the idea that, although a particular country may have no absolute advantage, it would still have a comparative advantage over another country when it came to a particular good or service: it would be able to produce a particular good or service more efficiently than another.
Absolute and comparative advantages are useful when discussing trade theories, particularly because the comparative advantage theory does a better job of explaining why trade relations come about and what motivates countries to involve themselves in bilateral exchanges. The absolute advantage theory is somewhat limitative, because a country that has an absolute advantage has no motivation to trade with another country.
The Heckscher-Ohlin model is perhaps...
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