The Numbers. Economies of Ail: Bacteria Flourish
by: Jo Craven McGinty
Dec 12, 2015
Click here to view the full article on WSJ.com
by: Jo Craven McGinty
Dec 12, 2015
Click here to view the full article on WSJ.com
TOPICS: Microeconomics
SUMMARY: Columnist Jo Craven McGinty explores how a chance conversation between two former roommates led to a breakthrough in the understanding of how microbial communities interact-and an affirmation of economic theory.
CLASSROOM APPLICATION: Instructors can use the article as an example in a microbial population (or economy) of comparative advantage, and the article's diagram shows a good analogy between countries trading wine and shirts and cells trading metabolites. The article also notes general equilibrium, and it reports on an experiment using microbes to test specialization and gains from trade. "Economists love this kind of study, Colin Camerer, professor of behavioral economics at California Institute of Technology, said, because it shows an economics principle functioning as anticipated in a simple system where economists didn't suspect the rules applied."
QUESTIONS:
1. (Advanced) The column notes "comparative advantage." Define comparative advantage. Is the trading metabolites among microbes pictured in the column an example of microbes exploiting comparative advantage?
2. (Introductory) The column notes "general equilibrium." Define general equilibrium and explain how it could apply to microbes trading multiple types of metabolites.
3. (Advanced) "In their experiment, the researchers documented a tradeoff between the species' growth and relative abundance in the overall microbial population based on their level of cooperation. The more a community shared, they found, the faster it grew-but the species that shared the most accounted for a smaller fraction of the total population, and eventually the benefit evaporated if the species 'overshared.'" Is it possible that in human economies that oversharing could happen, thereby leading to lower economic growth?
1. (Advanced) The column notes "comparative advantage." Define comparative advantage. Is the trading metabolites among microbes pictured in the column an example of microbes exploiting comparative advantage?
2. (Introductory) The column notes "general equilibrium." Define general equilibrium and explain how it could apply to microbes trading multiple types of metabolites.
3. (Advanced) "In their experiment, the researchers documented a tradeoff between the species' growth and relative abundance in the overall microbial population based on their level of cooperation. The more a community shared, they found, the faster it grew-but the species that shared the most accounted for a smaller fraction of the total population, and eventually the benefit evaporated if the species 'overshared.'" Is it possible that in human economies that oversharing could happen, thereby leading to lower economic growth?
Reviewed By: James Dearden, Lehigh University
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