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Concept Version 7
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Benefits of Specialization

Specialization leads to greater economic efficiency and consumer benefits.

Learning Objective

  • Discuss the effects of specialization on production


Key Points

    • Whenever countries have different opportunity costs in production they can benefit from specialization and trade.
    • Benefits of specialization include greater economic efficiency, consumer benefits, and opportunities for growth for competitive sectors.
    • The disadvantages of specialization include threats to uncompetitive sectors, the risk of over-specialization, and strategic vulnerability.

Term

  • comparative advantage

    The ability of a party to produce a particular good or service at a lower marginal and opportunity cost over another.


Full Text

Whenever a country has a comparative advantage in production it can benefit from specialization and trade. However, specialization can have both positive and negative effects on a nation's economy. The effects of specialization (and trade) include:

  • Greater efficiency: Countries specialize in areas that they are naturally good at and also benefit from increasing returns to scale for the production of these goods. They benefit from economies of scale, which means that the average cost of producing the good falls (to a certain point) because more goods are being produced . Similarly, countries can benefit from increased learning. They simply are more skilled at making the product because they have specialized in it. These effects both contribute to increased overall efficiency for countries. Countries become better at making the product they specialize in.
  • Consumer benefits: Specialization means that the opportunity cost of production is lower, which means that globally more goods are produced and prices are lower. Consumers benefit from these lower prices and greater quantity of goods.
  • Opportunities for competitive sectors: Firms gain access to the whole world market, which allows them to grow bigger and to benefit further from economies of scale.
  • Gains from trade: Suppose that Britain and Portugal each produce wine and cloth. Britain has a comparative advantage in cloth and Portugal in wine . By specializing and then trading, Britain can get a unit of wine for only 100 units of labor by trading cloth for labor instead of taking 110 units of labor to produce the wine itself (assuming the price of Cloth to Wine is 1). Similarly, Portugal can specialize in wine and get a unit of cloth for only 80 units of labor by trading, instead of the 90 units of labor it would take to produce the cloth domestically. Each country will continue to trade until the price equals the opportunity cost, at which point it will decide to just produce the other good domestically instead of trading. Thus (in this example with no trade costs) both countries benefit from specializing and then trading.

Of course, there are also some potential downsides to specialization:

  • Threats to uncompetitive sectors: Some parts of the economy may not be able to compete with cheaper or better imports. For example, firms in United States may see demand for their products fall due to cheaper imports from China. This may lead to structural unemployment.
  • Risk of over-specialization: Global demand may shift, so that there is no longer demand for the good or service produced by a country . For example, the global demand for rubber has fallen due the the availability of synthetic substitutes. Countries may experience high levels of persistent structural unemployment and low GPD because demand for their products has fallen.
  • Strategic vulnerability: Relying on another country for vital resources makes a country dependent on that country. Political or economic changes in the second country may impact the supply of goods or services available to the first.

As a whole, economists generally support specialization and trade between nations.

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