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The comparative advantage example is flawed.

The comparative advantage example at the start of this article is flawed. It states the less productive country is making more shirts per hour 4 instead of 2), which allows the flawed reasoning that this less productive country can benefit by making more shirts and selling them to the more productive country.

It is possible this example can be replaced with a different example which is sound.

-Todd Bezenek (talk) 20:59, 19 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! I just modified the numbers. You can edit the article yourself, of course, if it's still wrong or you see another way of improving it. —Ben Kovitz (talk) 01:52, 20 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

John Stuart Mill’s contributions to the theory?

Nice summary. (Torrrens — now there’s a name that doesn’t crop up often!)

I was surprised not to see any mention of John Stuart Mill’s extensions and refinements of Ricardo’s theory. Mark Blaug’s (classic) Economic Theory in Retrospect (4th ed.) devotes 4 pages to Mill’s development of “reciprocal demand” and “terms of trade” (pp. 204–208; the 1st is an important new theoretical tool, the 2nd a key result), complete with 2 offer curve diagrams! (Unfortunately, as is often the case in Blaug, it’s not clear whether Mill actually used the graphical device of an offer curve himself, or whether Mill only described the concept and Blaug incorporated the graphical device. I doubt that Mill did draw anything like an offer curve himself — graphical analysis hadn’t yet become a significant part of those early pioneers’ tool kit.)

Blaug also credits Mill with explicitly introducing transportation costs and how they affect the “ratios of exchange”.

According to Blaug, Mill used “German linen” and “English cloth” as his 2 illustrative commodities. That seems like an odd choice: 2 very similar commodities, vs. Ricardo’s classic English cloth vs. Portuguese wine. But Blaug doesn’t explain why Mill did this; maybe Mill didn’t explain it, either. (Pure speculation on my part: Mill may have wanted to illustrate that comparative advantage could even apply to specific commodities within broader categories of such commodities, and not just to significantly different products like cloth and wine.)

--Jackftwist (talk) 20:03, 22 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

@@ Line 26: / Line 26: @@
 : Thanks! I just modified the numbers. You can edit the article yourself, of course, if it's still wrong or you see another way of improving it. —[[User:BenKovitz|Ben Kovitz]] ([[User talk:BenKovitz|talk]]) 01:52, 20 June 2011 (UTC)
+== John Stuart Mill’s contributions to the theory? ==
+Nice summary. (Torrrens — now there’s a name that doesn’t crop up often!)
+I was surprised not to see any mention of John Stuart Mill’s extensions and refinements of Ricardo’s theory. Mark Blaug’s (classic) ''Economic Theory in Retrospect'' (4th ed.) devotes 4 pages to Mill’s development of “reciprocal demand” and “terms of trade” (pp. 204–208; the 1st is an important new theoretical tool, the 2nd a key result), complete with 2 offer curve diagrams! (Unfortunately, as is often the case in Blaug, it’s not clear whether Mill actually used the graphical device of an offer curve himself, or whether Mill only described the concept and Blaug incorporated the graphical device. I doubt that Mill did draw anything like an offer curve himself — graphical analysis hadn’t yet become a significant part of those early pioneers’ tool kit.)
+Blaug also credits Mill with explicitly introducing transportation costs and how they affect the “ratios of exchange”.
+According to Blaug, Mill used “German linen” and “English cloth” as his 2 illustrative commodities. That seems like an odd choice: 2 very similar commodities, vs. Ricardo’s classic English cloth vs. Portuguese wine. But Blaug doesn’t explain why Mill did this; maybe Mill didn’t explain it, either. (Pure speculation on my part: Mill may have wanted to illustrate that comparative advantage could even apply to specific commodities within broader categories of such commodities, and not just to significantly different products like cloth and wine.)
+--[[User:Jackftwist|Jackftwist]] ([[User talk:Jackftwist|talk]]) 20:03, 22 October 2012 (UTC)