India specializes in business process outsourcing and does this more efficiently than any other country. It buys agricultural commodities, which it produces less efficiently than outsourcing activities, from the United States, even though it produces these agricultural commodities more efficiently than the United States Which international trade theory supports India's decision to buy agricultural commodities from the United States?

Ricardo's Theory of Comparative Advantage

Explanation:

Comparative advantage is the term used to define the ability of an individual, firm or country to produce a particular good or service at a lower opportunity cost than that if it's competitors or trade partners. Opportunity cost is the benefit lost from the second best alternative.

When a country can produce a product more efficiently (i. e maximum output using minimum resources) than that of its trade partners, it is known as that it has absolute advantage in that product. India tends to have absolute advantage in both business processes outsourcing as well as producing agricultural commodities as it is mentioned that it can produce both of these more efficiently than the United States.

However, although it has absolute advantage in both, it is still less efficient in producing agricultural commodities when compared to business process outsourcing. In other words, if it attempts to produce agricultural commodities in-house, the benefit lost from the second best alternative: business process outsourcing is high. The opportunity cost is higher when it produces agricultural commodities than it is when it does business process outsourcing. Hence, due to the law of comparative advantage, it chooses to specialize in business process outsourcing and imports agricultural commodities.