International Trade Theories – Absolute, Comparative and Competitive Advantage
Absolute advantage theory was first presented by Adam Smith in his book “The Wealth of Nations” in 1776. Smith provided the first concept of a nation’s wealth. Adam Smith is a grandfather of economics because he introduced two important concepts that many of the new trade theories are based on these two main concepts, which are specialization and free exchange. However, many arguments were made and many economists thought there was a problem with the theory of absolute advantage after David Ricardo published the theory of “comparative cost” (aka “comparative advantage”) in the early 19th century. Even though Smith and his followers introduced many important points for the thoughts of economic, it is too complicated with this simple version of trade theory in today’s global economy. In 1990, Michael Porter introduced the diamond model of new competitiveness theory. These three trade theories are important in order to make a country Continue reading