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Contents 1 Needs major improvement 2 Merger proposal 3 References 4 Absolute vs. Comparative Advantages

[edit] Needs major improvement

As it stands this article is hugely misleading, based on some pop-economics understanding of "absolute advantage" and a few dubious news stories. It would be nice if someone with more knowledge on the subject than I could rewrite it so it accurately reflects the absolute advantage theory of Adam Smith (not even mentioned in the article currently!) and compares it accurately with the comparative advantage theory of David Ricardo. Alternately, it may be worth merging the two articles into absolute and comparative advantage, since the discussion of the two is often intermingled. --Delirium 21:05, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

Not sure about merging the two. Comparisons are good. But they are separate terms.Thomas Paine1776 23:09, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

As it is, the article really confuses comparative and absolute advantage. I shall try to sort it out if I can find time, but it must remain consistent in portraying absolute advantage as "being able to produce more than any other agent with a given quantity of input". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 162.84.125.159 (talk) 15:48, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Corrected the opening statement absolute advantage may refer to absolute advantage refers to. Please refrain from using ambiguos words such as several, may, many, possibly. (I don't know what the policy link is.)Smallman12q (talk) 00:53, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Someone should add a link or comparison against comparative advantage.Smallman12q (talk) 01:42, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Merger proposal

This should be simply merged into the article on Comparative advantage (and that article needs to be greatly improved). This is because 1) as is, this article essentially duplicates the info in the CA article while only briefly talking about AA and 2) AA is probably not a substantial concept by itself to warrant a full article.radek (talk) 05:25, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

I would strongly opppose against their merger.

• Absolute advantage is the

  ability to produce more of a given product using a given amount of resources^[1]

• Comparative advantage is

  the ability to produce a product most efficiently given all the other products that could be produced^[2]

It is the nation with the comparative advantage-not necessarily the absolute advatage-that can specialize in producing that good.^[3] These articles while related, but represent two very seperate opportunity cost advantages.Smallman12q (talk) 00:50, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

ABSOLUTE AND COMPARATIVE ARE DIFFERENT>>>NO REASON TO MERGE SEPERATE THEORIES>>>>IF ANYONE BELIEVES THAT DO NOT LISTEN TO THEIR POSTS>>>THEY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT —Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.236.45.6 (talk) 06:42, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes completely different theories. Please don't merge absolute with comparative. Instead of this, better merge first this section into this article. Thanks. -- Grochim (talk) 19:10, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

I don't know enough to suggest whether they should be merged or not, but it would definitely be useful with an explanation (with definitions and examples) of the difference between the two. I think the the first example of the CA page is actually AA (I may be wrong). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.99.126.166 (talk) 12:37, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

[edit] References

[edit] Absolute vs. Comparative Advantages

This should be two separate entries, but this article on absolute advantages is simply wrong. The main explanation given for absolute advantages in this entry is the description of comparative advantages - which is both wrong and misleading to someone who is new to the terminology. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.245.195.116 (talk) 16:00, 1 May 2009 (UTC)