Labour Economics

Course Description

This course is an introduction to labor economics with an emphasis on applied microeconomic theory and empirical analysis. We are especially interested in the link between research and public policy. Topics to be covered include: labor supply and demand, taxes and transfers, minimum wages, immigration, human capital, education production, inequality, discrimination, unions and strikes, and unemployment.

 Learning Outcomes

• Explain the determinants of labour demand in the short run and in the long run.
  
• Use individual and household labour supply models to explain the supply side of the labour market.
  
• Understand and apply the productivity and signaling models of human capital theory.
  
• Explain the presence of group differences in labour market outcomes and understand different ways of empirically measuring discrimination.
  
• Understand the determinants of geographic mobility and the effects of immigration on local labour markets.
  
• Synthesize information on different actors and outcomes across the various labour market topics. Critically evaluate academic research and studies dealing with labour economics.
  

 Course Content

• Introduction: facts about employment and earnings; the supply and demand framework
  
• Labor Supply
• Home production and the decision to work; the economics of the family
• The demand for labor, minimum wages, monopsony
• Human capital, education, and training
• The wage structure
• Discrimination
• Unions and bargaining

Compulsory Reading Materials

• Boeri, Tito and Jan van Ours, The Economics of Imperfect Labor Markets. 1st edition (2008), Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  
•  Borjas, George J. Labor Economics. 4th ed. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2008. ISBN: 97800734028
• Optional Reading Materials
• Ehrenberg, Ronald G., and Robert S. Smith, Modern Labor Economics – Theory and Public Policy. 11th edition (2012), Boston: Pearson/Addison Wesley.