what is absolute advantage as it relates to international trade

Absolute advantage in international trade is a concept that refers to a country’s ability to produce a good more efficiently (using fewer resources, or at a lower cost) than other countries. If a country has an absolute advantage in producing a certain good, it means that it can produce it more effectively than any other nation. For instance, if Country A can produce a car using 10 hours of labor while Country B requires 15 hours of labor to produce the same car, Country A has an absolute advantage in producing cars.

A country with an absolute advantage can produce a good at lower costs and therefore it can sell it at a cheaper price in the global market, assuming all other factors are equal. This makes the product more competitive internationally and may lead to a specialization where each country focuses on producing goods where it has an absolute advantage. This specialization can increase a country's efficiency and benefits the economies of all countries involved in trade.

The concept of absolute advantage was introduced by Adam Smith, the father of modern economics, in his work "The Wealth of Nations". He suggested that if countries specialize in the production of goods where they have an absolute advantage and then trade with others, the economic well-being of all countries would increase.