Factors of production and economic sectors

In Grandma Carmen's bakery, all four factors of production are involved. Classify each element into natural resources, labour, physical capital, or technology and knowledge: (a) the wheat and firewood; (b) the oven and dough mixer; (c) the baker and her assistant; (d) the bakery premises; (e) the sourdough recipe and the pastry-making course taken by the assistant.

The 'Piñón Fijo' bicycle workshop also uses the four factors of production. Classify each item as natural resources, labour, physical capital or technology and knowledge:

1. a) The lubricating oil and the steel of the parts.
2. b) The workshop's two mechanics.
3. c) The lift and the tools.
4. d) The e-bike course they took and their customer database.

Point out which of the four weighs more and more in businesses and explain why.

Classify these jobs into the primary, secondary, or tertiary sector, and state which one could also fit into the quaternary sector (knowledge and innovation): (a) a sheep shepherd; (b) a welder in a shipyard; (c) a delivery driver; (d) a strawberry farmer; (e) a video game programmer; (f) a carpenter who makes furniture. Explain the criterion you used.

The figure compares the share of each sector in the output of two imaginary countries: Campolia, highly agricultural, and Teknia, a developed country. One piece of data is covered. Remember that the three sectors of each country add up to $100\ \%$.

1. a) Calculate the percentage belonging to the tertiary sector in Teknia, which is the missing data on the chart.
2. b) Reason which country is more developed and explain the relationship between a country's development and the weight of its service sector.

Your city's industrial estate has: a yoghurt factory, a removals company, a body repair shop, an engineering office that designs machines and a snail farm.

1. a) Classify each one into its sector, carefully: the farm is primary even though it is on the estate, and the engineering office fits into the quaternary sector.
2. b) Explain what distinguishes them and which one you would say needs the most human capital per worker.

Explain in your own words what productivity is — how much is produced with the same means and in the same time — with this school example: two teams make bracelets for the school market; one turns out $30$ per hour and the other, $45$, with the same materials and the same people.

1. a) Name two things that can explain the difference (organisation, practice, better tools).
2. b) Argue why it is in a country's interest for its companies to become ever more productive.

At the school fair, the sandwich stall carries out a test: if a single person handles the entire process (slicing, assembling, wrapping, and charging) it takes $10$ minutes per sandwich; if three people divide the work between them, they produce a sandwich every $3$ minutes.

1. a) Calculate how many sandwiches are produced in one hour each way.
2. b) Explain two advantages of the division of labour and one possible disadvantage (monotony, or that if one person is absent the whole production line stalls).

Two artisan bakeries make the same bun. Rosa's produces $400$ buns a day with $4$ workers; Mihai's, $600$ with $5$.

1. a) Calculate the productivity of each bakery (buns per worker per day) and say which is more productive.
2. b) Propose two ways for Rosa's bakery to raise its productivity without hiring anyone (better organisation, a machine, training) and one drawback of each.

The bakery invests $1.200\ \text{€}$ in a new dough mixer and $300\ \text{€}$ in a pastry-making course for the assistant.

1. a) State which of the two investments is physical capital and which is human capital, and explain the difference.
2. b) Reason how each improves the bakery's production and why human capital is said to "travel inside the person": what happens to that investment if the assistant leaves for another bakery?

The neighbourhood supermarket has installed four self-checkout tills: it has cut two cashier posts, but has hired a technician to maintain the machines and one more shelf stacker.

1. a) Analyse which factor of production gains weight and which loses it.
2. b) Explain with this case why technology destroys some jobs and creates others, and what a young cashier should do to adapt.

At the union assembly of a logistics company, a group of workers demands stopping the installation of autonomous forklifts and order-picking software, arguing: "Every new machine that enters the company destroys jobs and condemns workers to permanent unemployment".

1. a) Rebut the workers' statement based on economic history and the theory of factor complementarity: explain why technical progress usually transforms the nature of jobs instead of causing aggregate net technological unemployment.
2. b) Design an adaptation proposal for the workforce that makes the installation of the machines compatible with maintaining employment in the company, specifying what new tasks with higher value added the reallocated workers could take on.
3. c) Predict what consequences the company's viability and the jobs of the entire workforce would face if management decided to reject the technology while its direct competitors did automate their warehouses.