Elijah and Aneesha are farmers. Each one owns an 18-acre plot of land. The following table shows the amount of zucchini and watermelon each farmer can produce per year on a given acre. Each farmer chooses whether to devote all acres to producing zucchini or watermelon or to produce zucchini on some of the land and watermelon on the rest.
Zucchini (Pounds per acre) Watermelon (Pounds per acre)
Elijah 12 3
Aneesha 18 6
On the following graph, use the blue line (circle symbol) to plot Elijah's production possibilities frontier (PPF), and use the purple line (diamond symbol) to plot Aneesha's PPF.
WATERMELON (Pounds)
180
162
144
126
108
90
72
54
36
18
0
0 90 180 270 360 450 540 630 720 810 900
ZUCCHINI (Pounds)
Elijah's PPF
Aneesha's PPF
has an absolute advantage in the production of zucchini, and has an absolute advantage in the production of watermelon.
Elijah's opportunity cost of producing 1 pound of watermelon is pounds of zucchini, whereas Aneesha's opportunity cost of producing 1 pound of watermelon is pounds of zucchini. Because Elijah has a opportunity cost of producing watermelon than Aneesha, has a comparative advantage in the production of watermelon, and has a comparative advantage in the production of zucchini.