Task assignment and restaurant output: a simulation analysis

Ernesto F. L. Amaral and Raymond Robertson

Journal of Economic Studies, 2026, vol. 53, issue 9, 352-363

Abstract: PurposeThis study isolates the output contribution of productivity-based task assignment in a fixed workforce and examines how that contribution changes with worker heterogeneity, cross-group comparative advantage and the correlation between task productivities.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis simulates fixed restaurant workforces of 1,000 workers in five 3,000-run Monte Carlo designs. Within each run, the output-maximizing cutoff assignment is paired with a random assignment that preserves exactly the same front- and back-of-house headcounts. Bivariate-normal productivity draws vary task dispersion, group means and within-worker task correlation; additional calculations vary the Cobb–Douglas task weights. A formula-driven Excel realization reproduces Figure 1, and the Stata materials reproduce the remaining simulation evidence.FindingsRelative to random assignment with the same task headcounts, optimal sorting raises mean output by 7.6% in the low-dispersion design and 12.1% when front-of-house dispersion is doubled. Greater dispersion changes random-assignment output by only −0.2% but raises optimally assigned output by 4.0%. Assignment gains decline from 10.0 to 5.4% as within-worker task correlation rises from −0.5 to 0.5. A separate cross-advantage design produces incomplete group specialization without materially changing output relative to the fixed group-neutral benchmark.Research limitations/implicationsThe results are comparative statics from assumed bivariate-normal productivity distributions. They remain conditional on fixed employment, perfect observation, costless reassignment, additive worker contributions within tasks and Cobb–Douglas aggregation across tasks.Originality/valueThis study does not propose a new theory of assignment, labor demand or immigration. Its value is a controlled computational decomposition that separates sorting from dispersion and group labels, makes the task-level mechanism visible and provides reproducible correlation and task-weight sensitivities.

Keywords: Worker heterogeneity; Task assignment; Occupational specialization; Firm productivity; Restaurant industry; Simulation modelling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:jespps:jes-07-2026-0730

DOI: 10.1108/JES-07-2026-0730

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