David Ricardo

Name: Course Name: Instructor’s Name: Date of Submission: David Ricardo David Ricardo was born in 1772 and he was a stock trader and political economist from the United Kingdom. His work was influential in the way he systemized economics as argued by John Stuart Mill, Thomas Malthus and Adam Smith among other classical economists. Ricardo contributed significantly as a businessman, Member of Parliament, speculator and a financier; Ricardo developed comparative advantage theory which favored specialization in individuals and free trade in nations depending on the jurisdictions (Ricardo On the Principles 19). Ricardo argued that trade was shaping nations in the way they conducted businesses, he continued to add that trade offered mutual benefit between the trading counterparts, although one party is usually stronger than the other party. There are a number of theories that were put forth by Ricardo, in addition to comparative advantage theory, he developed value theory and rent theory among others (Ricardo The Principles 99). A number of prominent people sort advice from Ricardo basing on matters of economics. Ricardo’s arguments relate to a number of aspects in opportunity costs, it has been noted that opportunity cost is a part of the microeconomic theory, opportunity costs involves making wise choices amidst limited resources (Ricardo Economic Insights 3). Findings argue that the best choice made identifies with the ‘cost’ incurred in the processes. Some scholars like Ricardo argued that the alternative chosen rendered the other alternatives to lose potential of influencing the model. In a nutshell, opportunity cost defines the relationship between choice and scarcity, and that the limited resources are used in the right way. Ricardo indicated that opportunity cost is not fixed along financial costs and monetary costs, and that utility should be reflected in the opportunity cost, some of the ...