5 | Trade
The fundamental market relationship is a trading relationship: people exchanging services on mutually agreeable terms.
How did the economy get started? Meet Ugg, Glugg and Tugg, three enterprising cave men who accidentally invented trade, marketing and the base elements of the modern market economy.
Quick recap on the main economic justifications/reasons for countries to trade with one another for greater economic prosperity.
How did the economy get started? Meet Ugg, Glugg and Tugg, three enterprising cave men who accidentally invented trade, marketing and the base elements of the modern market economy.
On a timeline of human history, the recent rise in standards of living resembles a hockey stick -- flatlining for all of human history and then skyrocketing in just the last few centuries.
A blog post on the division of labor, by Mike Munger.
You'll have the opportunity to learn more about fundamental ideas such as comparative advantage, increasing returns to scale, factor endowments, and arbitrage across borders. The consequences we discuss include the effects of offshoring, how trade has shaped the economies of China, Mexico, and Korea, when foreign direct investment is desirable, and the history of free trade and tariffs, among other topics.
Five reporters stumbled on what seems like a basic question: What is money? The unsettling answer they found: Money is fiction.
Scratch almost any economist and you will find someone who is firmly committed to free trade and, most likely, someone who largely agrees with his colleagues who signed a 2006 Open Letter to President Bush and Congress organized by the Independent Institute--for whom I serve as a Senior Research Fellow--arguing that immigration, even of low-skill workers, is a net boon to the US economy.
Quick recap on the main economic justifications/reasons for countries to trade with one another for greater economic prosperity.
Economies are ranked on their ease of doing business, from 1–190.
Economies are ranked on their ease of doing business, from 1–190. A high ease of doing business ranking means the regulatory environment is more conducive to the starting and operation of a local firm. The rankings are determined by sorting the aggregate scores on 10 topics, each consisting of several indicators, giving equal weight to each topic. The rankings for all economies are benchmarked to May 2019. Read the methodology, explaining how the ease of doing business rankings and the ease of doing business scores are calculated (PDF), or download the ranking table (PDF).
What generates comparative advantage? We look briefly at geography, factor proportions, increasing returns to scale and institutions such as labor market flexibility.
A video outlining comparative advantage and how it compares to absolute advantage.