Tom takes 20 minutes to cook an egg and 5 minutes to make a sandwich. Jerry takes 15 minutes to cook an egg and 3 minutes to make a sandwich. Tom has a comparative advantage in______________ and Jerry has a comparative advantage in__________ .
A) making sandwiches; cooking eggs
B) cooking eggs; making sandwiches
C) neither of these activities; both activities
D) both activities; neither of these activities

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Comparative advantage refers to the ability of a person, firm or country to produce a particular good or service at a lower opportunity cost than another. To determine who has a comparative advantage, we compare how much time each person takes to produce each good/service.

From the question, Tom takes 20 minutes to cook an egg and 5 minutes to make a sandwich while Jerry takes 15 minutes to cook an egg and 3 minutes to make a sandwich. To determine who has a comparative advantage in cooking eggs, we compare the time taken by each. It can be observed that Tom takes more time (20 minutes) to cook an egg compared to Jerry (15 minutes). Therefore, Jerry has a comparative advantage in cooking eggs. To determine who has a comparative advantage in making sandwiches, we compare the time taken by each. It can be observed that Tom takes less time (5 minutes) to make a sandwich compared to Jerry (3 minutes). Therefore, Tom has a comparative advantage in making sandwiches. Hence, the answer is B.

Tom Takes 20 Minutes to Cook an Egg and 5