Dear Gunnar,
Clement Greenberg’s notion of pure media is somewhat different to David Ricardo’s theory of comparative advantage.
Greenberg’s idea is a modernist Platonism in which each art form has its pure essence. The closer one can get to the essence of that form, the greater the art.
This is not so much specialization as purism.
Ricardo’s theory of comparative advantage is not a matter of specialization, or at least not simply. It involves the advantages that accrue to experience, skill, and learning, and the advantages that arise from the network of activities and opportunities that emerge when a person, region, or nation develops what one might call a specialty.
Ricardo’s argument is that nations or individuals prosper when they do what they are best at doing and exchange through trade for the goods and services that others produce best. The theory of comparative advantage is that this is more profitable than producing all goods and services oneself at lower quality and higher cost for some goods and services.
Ricardo argues that both parties in such an exchange will prosper better than if they were to do everything themselves. We can see that this in an example of physicians who sell medical services while buying shoes and bread. This is also the case when a successful shoemaker sells shoes, buying medical care, rather than doing his own medicine at home. It is also the case when the shoemaker buys fresh bread every day rather than spending an hour baking that would be more profitably used in making a pair of shoes that could yield a profit that will buy far more bread. And this is the case for the baker who will prosper by selling more bread.
National economies function differently to household economies. The theory of comparative advantage changes in some ways when applied to nations. For example, nations may have competitive or strategic requirements that differ to the requirements and opportunities of comparative advantage. For example, nations must sometimes choose to retain manufacturing capacity in strategically vital industries even though it would be cheaper to trade for the same goods. This is a choice that small nations sometimes make even though it is more expensive to manufacture than to purchase comparable goods from large export-based nations. But these kinds of choices can work against nations that use protectionist measures to the disadvantage of consumers and to the larger economy.
Many nuances also apply to differences between physicians and shoemakers. These include status, hourly wages, and other factors. And with respect to economic sectors, as well as to nations, historical change over time can make crucial differences.
Comparative advantage is a different concept than specialization. It isn’t related to Greenberg’s concept of artistic media.
There is a reasonable biography of Ricardo, together with related resources and Ricardo’s own writings at URL:
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Ricardo.html
While this web site was established by a foundation that furthers a specific political and economic viewpoint, the site offers excellent coverage of economic theory and a superb online library of historical reprints.
A new book by Mary Morgan (2012: 44-90) has a good chapter on Ricardo’s ideas and approach, especially with relation to agriculture.
David Warsh (2007) offers a good account of Ricardo’s ideas, and an account of the arguments for and against them.
While I recognize the virtues of comparative advantage in economics, the degree to which it applies in research or professional practice depends on individual passions, interests, and skills. I incline toward interdisciplinary research. The idea of a T-shaped professional in certain design fields a quite reasonable, as the T-shape implies both specialized depth and appropriate breadth.
Yours,
Ken
Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | University Distinguished Professor | Swinburne University of Technology | Melbourne, Australia | [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> | Mobile +61 404 830 462 | Home Page http://www.swinburne.edu.au/design/people/Professor-Ken-Friedman-ID22.html<http://www.swinburne.edu.au/design> Academia Page http://swinburne.academia.edu/KenFriedman About Me Page http://about.me/ken_friedman
Guest Professor | College of Design and Innovation | Tongji University | Shanghai, China
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References
Morgan, Mary S. 2012. The World in the Model: How Economists Work and Think. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Warsh, David. 2007. Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations. New York: W. W. Norton.
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