How Specialization Increases Productivity: A Comparative Advantage Case Study

When Anita and Jerome change their tasks to specialize based on their comparative advantage, they can produce more floral arrangements and deliveries each day. Specifically, they can produce 4 more floral arrangements and 2 more deliveries.

Explanation:

Given that Anita takes 30 minutes to finish one floral arrangement and 40 minutes to make a delivery, while Jerome takes 10 minutes to finish one floral arrangement and 30 minutes to make a delivery, we can analyze their comparative advantages in each task.

Jerome is more productive in floral arrangements compared to Anita, with a higher output per hour. Therefore, Jerome has a comparative advantage in floral arrangements, while Anita has a comparative advantage in floral delivery.

Initially, when both Jerome and Anita spent four hours each day on floral arrangements and two hours on deliveries, their total production was as follows:

Jerome: 24 arrangements and 4 deliveries

Anita: 8 arrangements and 3 deliveries

Total: 32 arrangements and 7 deliveries

After specializing in their respective tasks based on their comparative advantage, Jerome focuses on arrangements, producing 36 arrangements per day, while Anita focuses on deliveries, producing 9 deliveries per day.

Ultimately, with specialization in their comparative advantage tasks, the increase in production is 4 more floral arrangements and 2 more deliveries per day.