LeBron vs. Lawncare: Why It’s All About Trade-Offs

Professor Jon Gruber explains that although LeBron James has an absolute advantage in both playing basketball and mowing his lawn, his comparative advantage is in basketball, illustrating that countries like Colombia and the U.S. should specialize where their opportunity cost is lower to gain from trade.

Thumbnail credits:
LeBron image by RGB7, used under CC BY-NC 4.0 license.
Lawnmower image is public domain

Post from MIT OpenCourseWare on June 23, 2025