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Social stratification is present in all modern societies. Do income dif-ferences simply reflect inherited differences in individual abilities and re-sources? If not, why does not everyone choose strategies that lead to highincome? This paper shows that the psychological phenomenon known astemporal discounting will lead to differences in educational attainmentand therefore social stratification in any society where the demand forworkers with a higher level of education is higher than for those witha lower level. The model is used to predict income differences betweenpeople with and without college education in seven developed countries,based only on official statistics of the cost and length of college education.The model explains 93 percent of the variance, strongly suggesting thattemporal discounting is a major factor behind income differences.

The extensive division of labor in human societies is one of the aspects that make them unique. There are many areas which are influenced by this division. The most obvious one might be the economy, where division of labor yields much higher production. However, as we will show in this survey, a lot of other areas which affect society are influenced by division of labor, such as population size and density, technology, trade, accumulation of knowledge, social stratification, political organization, and institutions. Even the size of the family is argued to be linked to division of labor and specialization.This review will discuss how specialization evolved, including both theoretical and empirical studies from several disciplines. We will also study different kinds of specialization, as well as how and in which areas specialization has an influence.