absolute advantage

Advantage of a producer in the production of a good when it can produce that good at a lower absolute cost than other producers.

For example, producer A can manufacture a good for 2 when producer B can only manufacture it for 3. This differs from comparative advantage which compares relative costs of production. If producer A can produce good X for 2 and good Y for 4, and producer B can produce good X for 3 and good Y for 30, then producer A has an absolute advantage in both X and Y. But producer B has a comparative advantage in good X because it can produce it for 1/10th of the price of good Y whereas producer A can only produce it for 1/2 the cost.