Economics 320: Labor Economics

Spring 2008

Tuesday Thursday 9:30-10:50 Heady 160

Instructor:      Dr. Peter F. Orazem                             Office Hours:

                        267 Heady Hall                                     Tuesday Thursday after class

                        294-8656                                               Monday/Wednesday  12:10

                        pfo@iastate.edu                                    or by appointment

                        Home Page: www.econ.iastate.edu/faculty/orazem

 

Teaching Assistant: William Suppes, B3 Curtiss Hall, 294-4827, bsuppes@iastate.edu

 

Aim:  To develop a working knowledge of labor market models and facts and to build a facility for applying these models and facts to policy, business and economic settings.

 

Required Text:  (ES) Ehrenberg, Ronald, and Robert Smith. 2006. Modern Labor Economics: Theory and Public Policy, 9th edition. Reading MA:  Addison-Wesley.  

Review Text:  (HL)  Hall, Robert E. and Marc Lieberman. 2007.  Microeconomics: Principles and Applications, 4th edition.  Cincinnati:  South-Western College Publishing.

 

The assignments from Ehrenberg-Smith are required.  The Hall-Lieberman text is included for students who need to review introductory economics.  Copies of these textbooks are on reserve in the Parks Library. The other listed readings are not required.  They are sources from which lecture material will be taken or else useful sources for students wishing to investigate particular topics in greater detail.

Class Home Page:  www.econ.iastate.edu/classes/econ320/orazem.  The home page will contain the assignments, lists of topics covered, problem sets, review questions and other materials of interest.

 

Course Outline

I.          Labor Markets

ES:      Chpts. 1, 2, 15: 517-524; 530-533; 536-538; 544-547.

HL:      Chpts.  3, 11.

            Carrington, William J.  “The Alaskan Labor Market During the Pipeline Era.”  Journal of Political Economy 104 (February 1996): 186-218.

            Black, Dan, Terra McKinnish and Seth Sanders. “The Economic Impact Of The Coal Boom And Bust.” Economic Journal 115 (April 2005): 449-476.

            Kleiner, Morris M.  Licensing Occupations: Ensuring Quality or Restricting Competition? Kalamazoo, MI: Upjohn Institute. 2006.

            OECD. “Employment Protection Regulation and Labour Market Performance.” OECD Employment Outlook 2004: 61-125.

            Meisenheimer, Joseph R. “Real compensation, 1979 to 2003: analysis from several data sources.” Monthly Labor Review 128 (May 2005): 3-22.

            Sincavage, Jessica R. “The labor force and unemployment: three generations of change.” Monthly Labor Review 128 (June 2004): 34-41.

 

II.        Labor Demand

ES:      Chpts. 3, 4, 5: 129-152.

HL:      Chpt. 11, 12: 394-401.

            Brown, Sharon P., and Lewis B. Siegel. “Mass layoff data indicate outsourcing and offshoring work” Monthly Labor Review 128 (August 2005): 3-10.

            Bednarzik, Robert W. “Restructuring information technology: is offshoring a concern?” Monthly Labor Review 128 (August 2005): 11-21.

            Carrington, William J., and Bruce Fallick. “Do Some Workers Have Minimum Wage Careers?” Monthly Labor Review 124 (May 2001): 17-27.

            OECD. “Wage Setting Institutions and Outcomes.” OECD Employment Outlook 2004: 127-181.

            Khan, Lawrence M.  “The Sports Business as a Labor Market Laboratory.” The Journal of Economic Perspectives 14(Summer 2000): 75-94.

            Guillard, Marie-Claire "A visual essay: international labor market comparisons." Monthly Labor Review 129 (April 2006): 33-40.

            Cober, Aaron E., and Gregory Wilson. “Comparing 50 Years of Labor Productivity in U.S. and Foreign Manufacturing.”  Monthly Labor Review 125                            (June 2002): 51-65.

            Knaup, Amy E. and Merissa C. Piazza.  "Business Employment Dynamics data: survival and longevity, II." Monthly Labor Review 130

                        (September 2007): 3-10.

 

III.       Earnings Inequality   

ES:      Chpt. 14.

HL:      Chpt 12.

            “Symposium on Wage Inequality.”The Journal of Economic Perspectives 11(Spring 1997):21-96.

            Gottschalk, Peter and Timothy M. Smeeding. “Cross-National Comparisons of Earnings and Income Inequality.”  Journal of Economic Literature 35

                        (June 1997): 633-687.

            Buckley, John. “Rankings of Full-Time Occupations, by Earnings, 2000.” Monthly Labor Review 125 (March 2002): 46-57.

            Gittleman and Wiatrowsky. “Wage Query System: A New Tool to Access Wage Data.” Monthly Labor Review 124 (October 2001):22-27.

            Johnson, David S., Timothy M. Smeeding, and Barbara Boyle Torrey . "Economic inequality through the prisms of income and consumption."

                        Monthly Labor Review 128 (April 2005): 11-24.

 

IV.       Labor Supply

ES:      Chpts. 6, 7.

HL:      Chpt. 5.

            Campbell, Jim.  “Multiple Jobholding in States, 2004.” Monthly Labor Review 128 (September 2005): 38-45.

            Costa, Dora L.  “From Mill Town to Board Room:  The Rise of Women’s Paid Labor.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 14 (Fall 2000): 101-122.

            Mammen, Kristen and Christina Paxson.  “Women’s Work and Economic Development.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 14 (Fall 2000): 141-162.

            Gendell, Murray. “Retirement Age Declines Again in the 1990s.” Monthly Labor Review 123 (October 2001): 12-21.

            Kirkland, Katie.  “On the Decline in Average Weekly Hours Worked.” Monthly Labor Review 120 (July 2000): 26-31.

            Beers, Thomas M.  “Flexible Schedules and Shift Work:  Replacing the “9-5” Workday?” Monthly Labor Review 120 (June 2000): 33-40.

            Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Variations in Time Use at Stages of the Life Cycle.” Monthly Labor Review 128 (September 2005): 38-45.

            Frazis, Harley and Jay Stewart "What can time-use data tell us about hours of work?" Monthly Labor Review 128 (September 2005): 3-9.

            Cromartie, Stella “Labor force status of families: a visual essay” Monthly Labor Review 130 (July-August, 2007): 35-41.

            Cohany, Sharon and Emy Sok, “Trends in labor force participation of mothers with children and infants” Monthly Labor Review 130 (February 2007):9-16

 

V.         Human Capital Investment

ES:      Chpt. 5: 145-162, and Chapters 9, 10.

HL:      Chpts. 12, 13.

            Topel, Robert H.  “Factor Proportions and Relative Wages: The Supply-Side Determinants of Wage Inequality.”The Journal of Economic Perspectives 11

                        (Spring 1997): 55-74.

            Jacobsen, Joyce P., and Laurence M. Levin.  “Effects of Intermittent Labor Force Attachment on Women’s Earnings.”  Monthly Labor Review 118

                        (September 1995): 14-19.

            Galvin, Tammy.  “2002 Industry Report.”  Training (October 2002)

            Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.  What D’ya Know?: Lifetime Learning in pursuit of the American Dream. 2004             http://www.dallasfed.org/fed/annual/2004/ar04.pdf

 

VI.       Job Characteristics

ES:      Chpt. 8.

HL:      Chpt 12.

            Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.  Have A Nice Day:  The American Journey to Better Working Conditions. 2000                                     http://www.dallasfed.org/fed/annual/2000/ar00.pdf.

            Janice Windau and Samuel Meyer. “Occupational injuries among young workers” Monthly Labor Review 128 (October 2005): 11-23.

            Pegula, Stephen M. “Occupational fatalities: self-employed workers and wage and salary workers.”  Monthly Labor Review 128 (March 2004): 30-40.

 

VII.      Compensation

ES :     Chpt. 11.

            Lazear, Edward P. Personnel Economics for Managers.  New York, John Wiley and Sons, 1998,  pp.  51-62, 225-241, 411-434.

            Lettau, Michael K. and Thomas C. Buchmueller.  ‘Comparing Benefit Costs for Full- and Part-Time Workers.’ Monthly Labor Review 122

                        (March 1999):30-35.

            Barsky, Carl B. “Incidence benefits measures in the National Compensation Survey.” Monthly Labor Review 128 (August 2004): 21-41.

            Buckley, John E. and Robert W. Van Giezen “Federal statistics on healthcare benefits and cost trends: an overview.” .” Monthly Labor Review 128

                        (August 2004): 43-56.

 

VIII.    Discrimination

ES :     Chpt. 12.

            Blau, Francine D., Marianne A. Ferber and Anne E. Winkler. 2006. The Economics of Women, Men, and Work. 5th edition. 

                        Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

 

IX.       Unions (WILL NOT HAVE TIME: PLEASE READ ON YOUR OWN)

ES:      Chpt. 13.

 

Useful web pages: 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics Home Page (http://www.bls.gov/home.htm)  contains results from the numerous surveys conducted by the Department of Labor regarding employment, earnings, benefits, unions, unemployment, demographics and many other labor market issues.

The Monthly Labor Review (http://stats.bls.gov/opub/mlr/mlrhome.htm) is the journal of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  It contains accessible analyses of U.S. labor market data.  Issues back to 1981 are available on-line.

 

The NCS Wage Query System (http://data.bls.gov/labjava/outside.jsp?survey=nc) presents mean hourly wage data for all workers in an occupation for over 85 specific geographical areas. The system also produces modeled hourly wage estimates for many area, occupation, and work level combinations for which BLS has no officially published data.

BLS Occupational Wages (http://www.bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm)  Contains the summary data that generated the modeled estimates in the NCS Wage Query System.

 

Exams:  There will be two midterms and a comprehensive final, all composed primarily of short essay questions.  If, due to unavoidable conflicts or illness, you are unable to attend on the day of an exam, you must notify me beforehand to arrange a make‑up.  Failure to contact me or to leave me a message before the exam is handed out will result in an F on the exam.

Tentative Exam dates: February 28, April 24.

 

Problems Sets:  There will be several required problem sets graded on a good effort/poor effort/no effort basis.  These problems sets must be handed in by the start of class on the due date. You may hand in a problem set early, but late problem sets will receive no credit.  If you will not be able to hand the assignment in on time, you must notify me in advance.  Illegible or sloppy work will not be accepted.

 

Review Questions:  In addition to the problem sets, you will receive several sets of review questions to aid in studying for exams.  These will not be handed in and will not be graded.  However, an ability to answer these questions should be correlated with satisfactory performance on the exams.

 

Absences:  Students are responsible for all material discussed in class.  I will not release my notes to absent students.  If a student foresees an extended period of absence, he/she should notify me in advance so that some accommodation can be made.  Absent students can keep up with assignments by logging in to the Econ 320 web page at www.econ.iastate.edu/classes/econ320 .

 

Graduate Students:  The course is offered for nonmajor graduate credit.  For graduate students, all requirements are as stated above, except that graduate students are required to write a short paper of about 10 pages.  The paper should analyze a business or public policy question using one or more of the models covered in class.  The paper should clearly discuss the nature of the problem and how the model relates to the policy question.  The paper should not be merely a review of the literature, but rather should represent the student's own conclusions derived from his/her analysis.  Paper outlines are due on Tuesday, March 25, although earlier submissions are welcome.  Each student should have previously discussed his/her topic with me to insure that the topic is satisfactory.  The paper is due on Tuesday, May 6, although earlier submissions are welcome.

 

Point Breakdown:                               Undergraduate              Graduate

Two Midterms:                                      50 percent                     40 percent

Homework and Class participation          15 percent                     15 percent

Final:                                                    35 percent                     35 percent

Paper:                                                                                       10 percent

 

Disability Policy

Please address any special needs or special accommodations with me at the beginning of the semester or as soon as you become aware of your needs. Those seeking accommodations based on disabilities should obtain a Student Academic Accommodation Request (SAAR) form from the Disability Resources (DR) office (515-294-6624). DR is located on the main floor of the Student Services Building, Room 1076.