TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Loken, Katrine Vellesen
AU  - Silliman, Mikko
AU  - Willén, Alexander
AU  - Xu, Yaling
        TI  - The Division of Labor: Productivity, Coordination, and Learning
        PY  - 2026/Oct/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 19032
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp19032
        AB  - The division of labor is fundamental to how firms organize production. While economists have long recognized the tradeoff between specialization gains and coordination costs, less attention has been paid to its implications for human capital accumulation. A finer division of labor allows workers to develop greater expertise through repeated performance of narrowly defined tasks, but may also reduce opportunities to learn from coworkers by limiting interactions and knowledge exchange. We study these static and dynamic tradeoffs using population-wide Norwegian employer–employee records, linked workplace surveys, quasi-experimental variation in coworker availability, and randomized experiments with workers and managers.
        KW  - division of labor
KW  - learning
KW  - firm organization
        ER  -