Principles of Microeconomics / Unit 1 MIC 0004 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Division of Labor and Specialization
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The idea
Division of labor splits production into separate tasks, each done by a different worker. Adam Smith's pin factory of seventeen seventy-six showed ten specialists far outproducing ten working alone.
In practice
A restaurant has a cook, a server and a cashier, not three people doing everything.
Where people slip
Dividing the work is the first answer to scarcity: the same resources yield more output.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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