Explain The Logic Of Comparative Advantage?

To explain the principle of comparative advantage we begin with a simple example of specialization among people and then move to the more general case of comparative advantage among nations.

Consider the case of the best lawyer in town who is also the best typist in town. How should the lawyer spend her time? Should she write and type her own legal benefits? Or should she leave the typing to her secretary? Clearly, the lawyer should concentrate on legal activities, where her relative or comparative skills are most effectively used, even though she has absolutely greater skills in both typing and legal work.

Or look at it from the secretary's point of view. He is a fine typist, but his legal briefs are likely to lack sound legal reasoning and be full of errors. He is absolutely less efficient than the lawyer both in writing and in typing, but he is relatively or comparatively more efficient in typing.

In this scenario the greatest efficiency will occur when the lawyer specializes in legal work and the secretary concentrates on typing. The most efficient and productive pattern of specialization occurs when people or nations concentrate on activities in which they are relatively or comparatively more efficient than others; this implies that some people or nations may specialize in areas in which they are absolutely less efficient than others.