1.3.4—Division of labour and specialisation

Division of labour splits production into specialised tasks; specialisation concentrates a worker, firm or country on a narrower activity in which it has an advantage.

Repetition and learning can raise productivity, and exchange lets specialists access other goods. The trade-off is dependence on coordination, demand and reliable supply, plus possible boredom or loss of flexibility.

An assembly line may let each worker master one stage and produce more phones per hour, but a missing component or disrupted supplier can stop the whole line.

Specialisation is not automatically beneficial: its gains depend on scale, transport, markets and the ability to trade.