The rise in female reading scores alongside their maths scores suggests that female comparative advantage in this area has not changed.

ECONOMIST: Education and sex

When a nation loses sales to a foreign competitor in one line of work, that merely shifts its area of comparative advantage.

FORBES: No President Obama, We Can't "Outcompete" Other Countries

Now American motoring's one area of comparative laisser faire is under fire.

ECONOMIST: New York bans them; others will follow

Even if an executive is a better typist than his secretary, it pays him to hire her to do his typing, because that frees up his time for work in his area of comparative advantage: helping run the company.

FORBES: No President Obama, We Can't "Outcompete" Other Countries

The New York government is counting on Niagara Falls to provide the area with a comparative advantage in competing with foreign producers.

FORBES: U.S. Solar Manufacturer to U.S. Taxpayers: Drop Dead

The area could expand its comparative advantage from merely making things into moving things as well.

ECONOMIST: What will this year's world expo do for Nagoya?

But, done right, down the road, former pogo stick makers are perhaps doing something still more profitable in an area where we have comparative advantage.

FORBES: David Ricardo's Sugar Rush