This volume is a collection of selected papers using the framework of inframarginal analysis of the division of labour held at Monash University on 6-7 July 2001. This framework, pioneered mainly by Professor Xiaokai Yang, (with joint researches involving all the three editors and many of the authors), has been recommended by Professor James Buchanan (Nobel Laureate in Economics) as the most important analysis in economics in the world today.

Study of the progressive division of labor is a burgeoning industry in economics in recent years. Classical authors, dating back as early as 500 BC, have made insightful analysts on the determinants and implications of the division of labor. Unfortunately these writings ore rather scattered and not readily accessible. This important book aims to fill this void, serving as a valuable source of reference for scholars interested in the economics of specialization. The volume begins with the precursors of political economy including the ancient Greeks, medieval Islamic scholastics and...

This book provides, for the first time, a systematic and comprehensive narrative of the history of one central idea in economics, namely the division of labour, over the past two and a half millennia, with special focus on that having occurred in the most recent two and a half centuries. Quite contrary to the widely held belief, the idea has a fascinating biography, much richer than that exemplified by the pin-making story that was popularized by Adam Smith s classical work published in 1776.

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