Your roommate is a better cook than you are, but you can clean more quickly than your roommate can. If your roommate did all the cooking and you did all the cleaning, would your chores take you more or less time than if you divided each task evenly? Give a similar example of how specialization and trade can make two countries both better off.

The chores would take less time in case the roommate did all the cooking and I did all the cleaning because each person will be allowed to focus on the jobs that they do most efficiently, instead of spending half of the time on the job one master and the other half on doing the job that he/she does not do as good as the other person.

Similar example of how specialization and trade can make two countries better off are between USA and China. China has full of affordable labor and the cost of building up factory is relatively low in comparison to the USA while the USA have more experts specializing in designing and improving electrical devices such as phones, TV ... So, USA would specialize in products research and development while China would do the manufacturing of those devices.

Since my roommate is better in cooking and i am better in cleaning, it is best that she keeps cooking and i keep cleaning to save both time and energy, rather then we sharing the task evenly.

Using Nigeria and the USA as an example. Nigeria specializes in Agriculture and oil extraction because of its natural environment and the state is doing really well. Also, the USA specializes in science and technology because of its advancement in research and development, and the state is really doing great too.

Hence, specialization in the core area of strength gives room for better performance.