Labor Economics
- Lecture: Wednesday 8:30-10:00, KG I - HS 1023, Dr. Marie Elina Paul
Exercise Session: Thursday 16:15-17:45, KG III - HS 3042, Dr. Marie Elina Paul
- Please note: The Lecture from Wednesday, June 9th and the Exercise Session from Thursday, June 10th are postponed to Monday, June 14th from 14:00-17:00, Breisacher Tor, room no. 107.
- Credits: Lecture (2 SWS) plus Exercise Session (2 SWS) gives 6 credits
- Exam: Tuesday, 27 July, 09:00-11:00, HS 1199
make an appointment with Marie Paul by email.
- Retake: Wednesday, 13 October, 08:00-10:00, HS 2121
- Participants: The course is taught in English. The course is open to Diploma and IMP students.
Summary
Wages, employment, and education are key aspects for the well being of most individuals in an economy and labor market policy is an important part of economic policy. A high and persistent level of unemployment is one of the major policy problems in Germany. This course provides an overview on the economic analysis of labor markets. The main parts of the course are theories of labor supply and of labor demand, investment into human capital, union theories and wage bargaining, unemployment and labor market policies to fight unemployment, as well as incentive pay. The course is based on theoretical models as well as empirical findings. A number of current policy issues will be discussed. The Wednesday sessions will be organized as a lecture and the Thursday sessions (exercises sessions) involve working on the solutions of problems and discussing research papers (about five papers will be covered in depth in the exercise session over the semester). Students are expected to read these research papers before the sessions in which they will be covered, so that they are able to contribute to the discussion.
Prerequisites
Basic knowledge in Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, and Applied Econometrics
Course Outline
- Introduction
- Labor Supply
- Human Capital and Signaling
- Labor Demand
- Unemployment
- Unions and Wage Bargaining
- Incentive Pay
Main References:
- Borjas, G. J. (2010) Labor Economics, 5th edition, McGraw-Hill, Boston.
- Franz, W. (2006) Arbeitsmarktökonomik, 6th edition, Springer Verlag, Heidelberg.
Further References:
- Ashenfelter, O. and D. Card (1999) Handbook of Labor Economics, Volume 3A-3C, Elsevier Science, Amsterdam.
- Boeri, T. and J. van Ours (2008) The Economics of Imperfect Labor Markets, Princeton University Press.
- Cahuc, P. and A. Zylberberg (2004) Labor Economics, De Boeck Université.
- Ehrenberg, R.G. and R.S. Smith (2006) Modern Labor Economics: Theory and Public Policy, 9th edition, Pearson.
Additional Material:
Additional material (like the slides used in the lectures, the research papers to be discussed in the exercise sessions, and additional references) will be made available during the semester.
- In the first week, we will start with two lectures (i.e. the exercise session of April 22 will be replaced by a lecture) and in the last week of semester we will then have two exercise sessions. The paper “Flexibility and Job Creation: Lessons for Germany” (2002) by J. Heckman (www.nber.org/papers/w9194.pdf) and the article "The German labor market response in the world recession - de-mystifying a miracle" (2010) by J. Möller (Zeitschrift fuer ArbeitsmarktForschung, 42:325-336, http://www.springerlink.com/content/60x1512tpr61m03p/fulltext.pdf) will be part of the material covered in the first week.
- Here, you find a list of all documents distributed in the lecture.