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The division of labor.
§
Improvement in “skill and
dexterity.”
§
Learning by doing.
§
Spread fixed set-up costs.
§
Less “sauntering” between tasks.
§
Increased innovation.
§
Operative focused on and benefits
from “abridging labour.”
§
Specializing in invention.
§
Assign operatives according to
comparative advantage.
Adam Smith (1723-1790).
Author of the
Wealth of Nations
(1776). Picture courtesy of the
Warren J. Samuels Portrait
Collection at Duke University.
Charles Babbage
(1791-1871).
