Who among the following has given Absolute Advantage Model of international trade?

Correct option is A

The correct answer is (a) Adam Smith.
In his seminal 1776 work, The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith proposed the Theory of Absolute Advantage. He argued that a country should specialize in and export the goods it can produce more efficiently (using fewer resources) than any other country, and import those goods where it has an absolute disadvantage. This challenged the then-prevailing "Mercantilist" view that a nation's wealth depended on accumulating gold by restricting imports.
Information Booster
· The Core Logic: If Country A can produce a ton of wheat in 5 hours and Country B takes 10 hours, Country A has an absolute advantage. Conversely, if Country B produces a yard of cloth in 2 hours and Country A takes 4, Country B has the absolute advantage in cloth. Both gain by trading.
· Laissez-faire: Smith’s model was the foundation for free trade (unrestricted exchange), suggesting that global wealth increases when countries stop trying to produce everything themselves.
· Limitation: The biggest flaw in Smith's model was that it couldn't explain how trade could benefit a country that was less efficient in everything compared to its neighbor.
Additional Knowledge
· (b) David Ricardo: Developed the Theory of Comparative Advantage in 1817, which proved that trade is beneficial even if one country has an absolute advantage in all goods, as long as they focus on products with the lowest opportunity cost.
· (c) Heckscher-Ohlin: Proposed the Factor Endowment Theory, suggesting trade patterns are determined by a country’s relative abundance of land, labor, or capital.
· (d) William Petty: An early economist known for his work on "Political Arithmetic" (statistics) and the labor theory of value, but not for this specific trade model.