6.1 - International specialisation
6.1.1 Specialisation at a national level
Specialisation of countries at a national level
● Economies concentrate on producing goods and services in which they have an
advantage at
● Countries usually concentrate on producing those products that they are best at
making at and which are high in global demand
Different levels of specialisation
● Individual level - worker specialises in a particular task
● Business level - e.g one firm may only specialise in manufacturing drill bits for
concrete work
● Regional level - e.g. Silicon Valley has specialised in the tech industry
● National level as countries seek to trade - e.g. Bangladesh specialises in textiles
and exports them to the world
Factors that allow a country to specialise
1) Superior resource availability
● If quality of the resource is better than other countries → charge higher
prices
● If quantity of the resource is higher → lower prices + drive competitors out
of business by specialising in its extraction and sale
2) Cheaper production methods
● If there are lower costs of production → likely they will be able to lower
selling prices + gain a lead in the international market share
● Some countries can produce cheaply using machinery or technological
innovation
○ Others can also provide a large labour force → perform cheap
manual tasks
6.1.1 Specialisation at a national level
Specialisation of countries at a national level
● Economies concentrate on producing goods and services in which they have an
advantage at
● Countries usually concentrate on producing those products that they are best at
making at and which are high in global demand
Different levels of specialisation
● Individual level - worker specialises in a particular task
● Business level - e.g one firm may only specialise in manufacturing drill bits for
concrete work
● Regional level - e.g. Silicon Valley has specialised in the tech industry
● National level as countries seek to trade - e.g. Bangladesh specialises in textiles
and exports them to the world
Factors that allow a country to specialise
1) Superior resource availability
● If quality of the resource is better than other countries → charge higher
prices
● If quantity of the resource is higher → lower prices + drive competitors out
of business by specialising in its extraction and sale
2) Cheaper production methods
● If there are lower costs of production → likely they will be able to lower
selling prices + gain a lead in the international market share
● Some countries can produce cheaply using machinery or technological
innovation
○ Others can also provide a large labour force → perform cheap
manual tasks
