"This concept called comparative advantage is really applied universally," he says to his host Mary Walden. "For example, when you are talking about individual people, you and I became teachers; my dad, for example, found his skills were best suited for him to become a carpenter; your mom was a businesswoman. But we can apply this concept that obviously applies to workers more broadly.

"You can talk, as you said, about the comparative advantage of countries," he tells her. "For example a country like Saudi Arabia, its comparative advantage of producing oil. The U.S. has comparative advantages in technology, the arts and agriculture.

"A big focus today is finding a comparative advantage of towns and communities, especially those towns and communities that have seen their previous dominant industries decline. And we see this here in North Carolina," adds Walden, an economics professor at N.C. State University. "There are plenty of towns that are struggling. The textile industry, the furniture industry has gone away. And those towns are trying to assess what comparative advantage do they have.

"And they are looking at the skills of their people, they are looking at their location maybe natural advantages and trying now to figure out what now can they do for the future in order to compete and earn money. Again, they are trying to find their comparative advantage.