Consider two neighboring island countries called Felicidad and Arcadia. They each have 4 million labor hours available per week that they can use to produce rye, jeans, or a combination of both. The following table shows the amount of rye or jeans that can be produced using 1 hour of labor. Country Rye Jeans
(Bushels per hour of labor) (Pairs per hour of labor)
Felicidad 4 16
Arcadia 5 10

Initially, suppose Arcadia uses 1 million hours of labor per week to produce rye and 3 million hours per week to produce jeans while Felicidad uses 3 million hours of labor per week to produce rye and 1 million hours per week to produce jeans. Consequently, Felicidad produces 12 million bushels of rye and 16 million pairs of jeans, and Arcadia produces 5 million bushels of rye and 30 million pairs of jeans. Assume there are no other countries willing to trade goods, so, in the absence of trade between these two countries, each country consumes the amount of rye and jeans it produces.

Felicidad's opportunity cost of producing 1 bushel of rye is of jeans, and Arcadia's opportunity cost of producing 1 bushel of rye is of jeans. Therefore, has a comparative advantage in the production of rye, and has a comparative advantage in the production of jeans.

Suppose that each country completely specializes in the production of the good in which it has a comparative advantage, producing only that good. In this case, the country that produces rye will produce million bushels per MONTH, and the country that produces jeans will produce million pairs per MONTH.