ABSTRACT
Taxation” in The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, edited by Piero Sraffa and M.H. Dobb, vol. 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1951 (1st edition 1817; 3rd edition 1821)
Ridley, Matt, “The Gains from Trade” in his The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation, London and New York: Viking, 1996
Samuelson, Paul A., “The Gains from International Trade”, Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, 5 (1939): 195-205
Samuelson, Paul A., “The Gains from International Trade Once Again”, Economic Journal, 72 (1962): 820-29
Smith, Adam, “Of the Causes of Improvement in the Productive Powers of Labour, and of the Order According to Which Its Produce Is Naturally Distributed among the Different Ranks of the People” and “Of Systems of Political Economy” in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, edited by Kathryn Sutherland, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1993 (first published 1776)
Although many non-economists are sceptical of the axiomatic qualities ascribed to the theory of comparative advantage, RIDLEY cites the existence of inter-group trade in several pre-industrial societies as suggestive evidence that humans have exploited the logic of comparative advantage for thousands of years. Ridley also points out that inter-group trade affords us a unique edge over all other animals: while many species divide tasks between individuals to increase efficiency, only humans make use of the law of comparative advantage between groups.
