تقسیم کار آدام اسمیت و تغییرات ساختاری

This paper considers two different cases of division of labor: (i) the subdivision of different operations in order to produce a particular product in a given firm or plant; (ii) the specialization of firms in the same industry. Division of labor of the former type is limited by demand for output of a particular firm or plant, while division of labor of the latter type is limited by demand for the industry as a whole. It is argued that, in the case of an industry producing a homogenous product, an increase in the scale of production of any particular firm is likely to be associated with changes in the internal division of labor. In the case of inter-firm division of labor, decreasing unit costs may result from lateral disintegration. Finally, in the case of an industry producing a composite commodity (that is, a commodity composed of many different sub-commodities), firms’, disequilibrium behavior may lead to concentration of each firm to fewer sub-commodities, in the anticipation of the entry of new firms, or as a result of it.

The division of labor of the first kind, which is planned by the entrepreneur in a single firm, can somehow be dealt with by the equilibrium theory of a competitive industry. The division of labor of the second kind, which is carried out unorganizedly by many different independent firms in a competitive industry, however, cannot be explained without the careful consideration of the disequilibrium behavior of firms. To understand this process, we need a new dynamic disequilibrium theory of firms, the full development of which, unfortunately, is yet to come.