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These are the best new articles, videos, podcasts, and other resources we have found to teach trade and specialization. They bring economics to life by showing students real-life examples and current events.
 

News Articles

(Listed from most recent to oldest)

Steve Madden Takes a Bold Step, Cutting Ties with China in Response to Trump's Proposed Tariffs | CEO Today (Nov. 11, 2024)
Retailers are already strategizing how to avoid 60% tariffs, but suppliers aren’t necessarily bringing production back to the US.

Exclusive: Firm making car that Putin gifted to Kim uses South Korean parts | Reuters (June 28, 2024)
Car manufacturing is a global and specialized process. Even those countries that try, or are forced to try, to manufacture goods independently struggle to produce without imported parts.

EU to hit Chinese electric cars with tariffs of up to 48% | Financial Times (June 12, 2024)
The EU is following the US’s lead in introducing tariffs on Chinese EV's, with individual tariff levels based on the producer, despite strong objections from Germany. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned, “isolation and illegal customs barriers . . . ultimately just makes everything more expensive, and everyone poorer”. Did you know? Teachers can get free access to the Financial Times by signing up here.

EU to hit Chinese electric cars with tariffs of up to 48% | Financial Times (June 12, 2024)
The EU is following the US’s lead in introducing tariffs on Chinese EV's, with individual tariff levels based on the producer, despite strong objections from Germany. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned, “isolation and illegal customs barriers . . . ultimately just makes everything more expensive, and everyone poorer”. Did you know? Teachers can get free access to the Financial Times by signing up here.

Biden sharply hikes US tariffs on an array of Chinese imports | Reuters (May 14, 2024)
The Biden Administration announced a slew of tariff increases on Chinese goods including an increase from 25% to over 100% on EVs and an increase to 50% on semiconductors.

The invisible seafaring industry that keeps the internet afloat | The Verge (Apr 16, 2024)
You probably haven’t considered a career in undersea cable repair. But it’s a critical area of specialization enabling much of global trade.

America exports so much natural gas that Americans are paying more for it | Quartz (March 12, 2024)
The US has a comparative advantage in natural gas production. As exports have increased, domestic prices have predictably gone up, as has producer surplus. This article pairs well with our interactive on winners and losers of international trade.

Australia scraps 'nuisance' tariffs to remove red tape, lower living costs | Reuters (March 10, 2024)
Australia is embracing the benefits of comparative advantage and reducing the transaction costs of trade.

The strategic crossroads for the EU’s single market | Financial Times (Feb. 8, 2023)
The EU boosts trade within the bloc by an estimated 63%, but fragmented financial services, telecom, defense, and energy don't benefit from the same frictionless trading area. Check out this interview with Enrico Latta on the future of the EU’s single market, and why he wants a “28th regime” to boost trade. Did you know? Teachers can get free access to the Financial Times by signing up here.

Why a new ‘tomato tax’ is rotten to the core | Food Dive (Feb. 5, 2024)
The Florida Tomato Exchange wants Congress to reimpose a 21% tariff on imported tomatoes, to the benefit of Florida tomato growers. Tomato prices for consumers could increase as much as 52% as a result. Talk about concentrated benefits and dispersed costs.

Global trade falls amid Houthi attacks on merchant ships in Red Sea | The Guardian (Jan. 11, 2024)
Global trade dropped 1.3% in December, and the number of containers traveling daily through the Red Sea fell by 60% from November to December.

Hard cheese: Canada rejects British attempt to secure tariff-free exports | The Guardian (Dec. 23, 2023)
A 245% tariff on cheese imports into Canada could cause the supply of British cheeses to crumble unless a new, post-Brexit trade deal is reached.

India lifts tariffs on U.S. apples | The Spokesman-Review (Sept. 11, 2023)
India recently lifted a 2018 retaliatory tariff on apples. The tariff reduced imports of US apples by 99%, but lifting the tariff won't increase imports overnight.

Adam Posen: ‘Russia and North Korea worked hard to be self-sufficient, it has not turned out well for them’ | Financial Times (July 16, 2023)
How are national industrial policies based on a zero-sum view of economics? What about comparative advantage? And what happens when countries try to be self-sufficient? Teachers can get free access through the FT Schools program.

America’s Infant Formula Crisis | The Dispatch (May 11, 2022)
This article covers the root causes of the baby formula shortage. Most importantly for the trade topic, it discusses how tariffs and other restrictions keep foreign producers out of the U.S. market.
Resource: Worksheet

Washing machines reveal how trade and competition are linked | The Economist (Feb. 11, 2021)
Whirlpool’s efforts to seek protection for domestically manufactured washers resulted in a game of global tariff whack-a-mole.

The Inefficiency of Local Food | Our World in Data (January 4, 2020)
Eating local sounds nice, but research shows that, surprisingly, it comes at a large cost to the environment. The blog post goes into more detail. It also pairs well with MRU’s video on the same topic.

The world’s cheapest hospital has to get even cheaper | Bloomberg (March 26, 2019)
The Narayana Hospital in India is considered the Model-T of hospitals, using extreme specialization to cut the cost of heart surgery down to $800. And now it’s trying to cut costs by even more. Are there limits to the division of labor?

 Getting Graphic

Graphing Gains From Trade Interactive Practice | MRU
Check out our interactive on the gains from international trade!

Winners and Losers of International Trade Interactive Practice | MRU
International trade increases total surplus, but not everyone wins. Explore the distributional effects of international trade with your students!

International Trade with Tariffs Interactive Practice | MRU
Who gains and who loses from a tariff? This set of interactive questions helps students understand changes in consumer and producer surplus due to a tariff. Deadweight loss and government revenue are also illustrated.

Videos

How to make a $1500 sandwich in only 6 months | How to Make Everything 
Sometimes, specialization is best learned by seeing its antithesis. Bobby spends 6 months (and $1500!) to make all the ingredients for a (just ok) sandwich.

Married mothers who earn more than their husbands take on an even greater share of the housework | Phys.org (2:16)
A specialized division of labor is common among parents under time and income pressure. We would expect that they would divide tasks according to their comparative advantage. Mothers would often do more of the housework when their husband works and earns more. However, what about mothers who earn more than their spouses?

When in India, Get a Haircut | MRU
Why are services so much cheaper in developing countries but goods are not? Alex Tabarrok covers the Balassa-Samuelson effect, purchasing power parity corrections, arbitrage, labor mobility, and why all of this is important when comparing the living standards of different countries.
Resource: Practice Questions

Comparative Advantage | MRU
MRU provides a simple introduction to the concept of comparative advantage using the couple from the American Gothic painting.
Resource: Worksheet

Division of Labor: Burgers and Ships | MRU
Whether it’s flipping burgers or global shipping networks, the benefits of specialization are clear.
Resource: Worksheet

How Companies Design Products To Avoid Tariffs | Cheddar
This video shows that tariffs create more deadweight loss than the triangle we see in a simple graph. Companies go to great lengths to avoid a tariff! (See also here and here.)
Resource: Worksheet

The Chicken Tax | Planet Money Shorts
In this entertaining video, Planet Money shows how a tariff on American-raised frozen chicken helped shape the market for American trucks.

Podcasts

How one Filipino American artist influenced the work of a generation of others| NPR (5:16 min)
n 1958, there was no school specializing in teaching Filipino art. Learn how Carlos Villa seized the opportunity and influenced the work of a number of younger artists.

How to Trade Up from a Bobby Pin to a House | The Indicator
Can you really trade a bobby pin for a house? Not directly. But Demi has spent the last year trading up from the bobby pin and currently has a trailer with a Tesla battery pack and solar panels. Along the way, she’s learned how to perfectly explain mutually beneficial exchange and diminishing marginal returns.

Planet Money Summer School 6: Trade & The Better Life | Planet Money
Want to understand how comparative advantage and absolute advantage change over time and impact people all over the globe?

What A Tariff Looks Like | The Indicator
A tariff seems really abstract and mysterious to the uninitiated; this episode brings tariffs to life by digging into where and how tariffs are collected.

Additional Resources

International Trade Unit Plan | MRU
Six days worth of active learning, interactives, fun videos, and more covering opportunity cost, comparative advantage, gains from trade, tariffs, and more.

Trading Game | MRU
A great game to have the students learn about mutually beneficial exchange and the gains from trade.

Multiple-Choice Questions | MRU
Comparative advantage, absolute advantage, PPF, and opportunity cost.

International Trade Assessment Questions | MRU

Tradle | Alexander Simoes
Guess the country based on its exports.

Shifting PPC Worksheet | MRU

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