Week 13 — Readings & Resources

Course: Principles of Macroeconomics (ECON 2) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Ashford
Focus: International Trade & Comparative Advantage · Objective 8

Everything below is a link to a free external resource — nothing is embedded, copied, or downloaded. Links were verified live at build time; if one ever rots, the per-term update re-checks them. (Canvas: a Page of links + ExternalUrl module items.)

📖 Read (≈25 min)

1. OpenStax, Principles of Macroeconomics 3e — Ch. 20, "Introduction to International Trade."
   🔗 https://openstax.org/books/principles-macroeconomics-3e/pages/20-introduction-to-international-trade
   Absolute vs. comparative advantage, intra-industry trade, and the gains from reducing trade barriers — the spine of today's comparative-advantage material.

2. OpenStax, Principles of Macroeconomics 3e — Ch. 19, "Introduction to Macroeconomic Policy around the World."
   🔗 https://openstax.org/books/principles-macroeconomics-3e/pages/chapter-19
   Covers the trade balance in a global-policy context — complements Ch. 20's comparative-advantage focus with the macro-level view of exports, imports, and net exports.

▶️ Watch (≈10 min)

3. CrashCourse Economics #2 — "Specialization and Trade." (Adriene Hill & Jacob Clifford)
   🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI9TLDIPVcs
   A fast, friendly companion covering absolute and comparative advantage — the same Northland/Southport logic, told with different examples.

🛠️ Tools & data for this week

4. BEA — International Trade in Goods and Services (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis)
   🔗 https://www.bea.gov/data/intl-trade-investment/international-trade-goods-and-services
   The official U.S. trade-balance release — see how economists report exports, imports, and net exports for a real economy.

Why these earn the click: OpenStax Ch. 20 is the spine of today's absolute-vs-comparative-advantage material, and Ch. 19 extends it to the trade-balance view; CrashCourse gives the same core idea in voice and motion; the BEA page shows you the real-world version of the NX number you'll compute this week.