Chapter 1: Division of Labor

 Many marriages founder on the rocks of how household chores are divided--it's often third on the list of what couples argue about behind sex and money.  Use the theory of comparative advantage to help decide whoshould do what around the house. “Comparative advantage” says that “it’s not efficient for you to take onevery single task you’re good at, only those tasks you’re relatively better atcompared with other tasks" (6).

Listing tasks and time (17).

Create a list of all household chores and compare who isfaster at doing it.  Even if youare slower at everything, it is more efficient for you to do the thing yourfastest at and let your spouse do the thing your slowest at.  The more efficient you are atspecializing your labor, the more leisure time you’ll have to hang outtogether.

How comparative advantage saves time (18).

When an economy is failing, like a marriage, economists“don’t blame the market, [they usually] blame lack of a market” (24). When changes happen in your life (eg, kids) you have to re-evaluate yourdivision of labor.

By efficiency, the authors mean “Pareto efficiency,” asituation in which “nobody can be made better off without somebody else beingmade worse off” (27).  This oftenmeans that chores aren’t divided 50/50; it’s up to each couple to determine,through open discussion of labor, when things are Pareto efficient.  Until you achieve this, you’re marriageis screwed.

Of course, Pareto efficiency and comparative advantage arethe only factors—things work better when each has an incentive to do something,namely, that they like the chore. In a marriage, the incentives always involve the spouse caring about the results of the labor.

Because life is always change, you sometimes have to investin new specializations—try new tasks—in order to achieve comparative advantage.