Labor economics and public policy

An outline of course topics is available below.

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

Recitations: 1 session / week, 1 hour / session

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.

Prerequisites include basic-to-intermediate microeconomics and a course in statistics or econometrics. Also helpful is some experience with statistical computing, ideally using Stata or SAS.

In addition to exams and readings, there are four problem sets, each of which have a computer-exercise component. There are also ungraded review problem sets at the beginning and the end of the course. Students are expected to participate in class discussions.

Borjas, George J. Labor Economics. 5th ed. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2010. ISBN: 9780073511368.

This edition differs little from the 4th edition, which you may also use, though note changes in chapter and section numbers:

Borjas, George J. Labor Economics. 4th ed. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2008. ISBN: 9780073402826.

The best three out of the four problem sets will be counted for the grade. There is a 10% bonus for strong participation as determined by contribution to class discussion and regular attendance.

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