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Economics 151B
Labor Economics
Winter 2003
General Information:
Instructor: Professor Page
Office: 1138 Social Sciences Building
Office Hours: MWF 1:00-2:00
Office Phone: 752-1551
e-mail address: [email protected]
FINAL EXAM: Thursday, March 20 1:30-3:30 pm.
Course Format and Goals:
In this course we will examine four topics related to labor markets in the United States.
They are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
How Does Education Affect Earnings?
Labor Market Discrimination and Affirmative Action
Inequality in Earnings
Unemployment
We will spend approximately 2 ½ weeks on each topic. Each has received considerable
attention in both the popular press and in the economics profession. Despite much
research, many of the questions sparked by these topics do not have a consensus answer.
The course is designed to familiarize you with important questions in labor economics,
equip you with basic institutional background and statistics on each issue and provide
you with economic models important to evaluation of the questions. The most important
goal is to facilitate you in learning to think critically about these and other economic
topics that get public attention. In order to evaluate the questions you need to be able to
rely on your own ability to get the facts. One goal of the course is to help you develop
the skills necessary to find unbiased answers to public policy questions.
Required Materials:
Text: Ehrenberg, Ronald, and Robert Smith, Modern Labor Economics: Theory and
Public Policy, Harper Collins, 2002. (Eighth Edition). If you have access to an earlier
addition that is probably acceptable.
Reserve Readings: Copies of the reserve readings can be purchased from Navin’s, 231 3rd
St. I will also put a copy on reserve in Shields Library. These readings are required. I
will expect you to know the material covered in the readings for the exams. Some of the
articles contain difficult technical material. I do not expect you to become an expert in
econometrics in order to discuss these papers, but I do expect you to be able to
summarize the major concepts.
Grades:
Either: Pop Quizzes 10%
Final
90%
or
Pop Quizzes 10%
Regular Quizzes 35%
Final 55%
Class Participation:
Because many of the questions dealt with in this course have no “right” answer, we can
all learn from class discussion. To that end, active participation that includes thoughtful
questions will be rewarded. In order to facilitate class discussion, I expect students to
have read assigned material before class. Students who demonstrate that they have read
the material (even if they do not understand it) will get credit for class participation. I
will add five points to their total (out of 100) exam points.
Pop quizzes may be used occasionally to encourage you to keep up with the material.
These will be counted as part of your class participation grade.
In-class Quizzes:
There will be a 20-30 minute in-class quiz after we have completed each topic. Quizzes
will consist of one or two questions on the topic. Questions will be designed to reflect
the nature of the final exam. I will let you know that a quiz is coming up at least one
class in advance. Missed quizzes will be assigned a grade of zero.
Quiz grades may be petitioned up to 1 week after the quiz has been returned. In order to
petition a quiz grade you must submit your request to me in writing, with a careful
explanation as why your answer is correct. When I regrade your quiz I will regrade the
entire quiz. In other words, it is possible that your grade will fall if you submit your quiz
for a regrade.
Final Exam:
The final exam will include 4 essay questions: one from each section of the course. The
structure of the questions will be very similar to those from the in-class quizzes.
Additional Note:
If you have a physical disability, any difficulty with the English language, or other
special needs that are relevant to your success in this class please see me early in the
quarter. I will help you get access to resources that may help you deal with any special
problems you might have in this course.
READING LIST
1. How Does Education Affect Earnings?
E & S Chapter 9
Card David, and Alan Krueger, “Does School Quality Matter? Returns to Education and
the Characteristics of Public Schools in the United States,” Journal of Political
Economy, Vol 100, February 1992.
Hanushek, Eric, “The Economics of Schooling: Production and Efficiency in Public
Schools,” Journal of Economic Literature, Vol 24, Sept 1986.
Jaeger, David A. and Page, Marianne E., “Degrees Matter: New Evidence on Sheepskin
Effects in the Returns to Education,” Review of Economics and Statistics, 1996.
Ashenfelter, Orley, and Alan Krueger, “Estimates of the Economic Return to Schooling
from a New Sample of Twins,” American Economic Review, December 1994.
2.
Labor Market Discrimination and Affirmative Action
E & S, Chapter 12
Fix, Michael and Raymond Struyk, eds, Clear and Convincing Evidence, Lanham, MD,
Urban Institute Press, 1993, Chapter 5.
Heckman, James and John Donohue III, “Continuous Versus Episodic Change: The
Impact of Civil Rights Policy on the Economic Status of Blacks,” Journal of
Economic Literature, Vol 29, December 1991
Herrnstein, Richard J. and Charles Murray, The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class
Structure in American Life, 1994 by Simon and Schuster, New York, NY. pp.
447-458 and Chapter 20.
Lundberg, Shelly and Richard Startz, “Private Discrimination and Social Intervention in
Labor Markets,” American Economic Review, June 1983.
3. Earnings Inequality
E & S, Chapter 14
Berman, Eli, John Bound and Zvi Griliches, “Changes in the Demand for Skilled Labor
within U.S. Manufacturing: Evidence from the Annual Survey of Manufactures,”
Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 1994.
DiNardo, John and Jorn-Steffen Pishke, “Returns to Computer Use Revisited: Have
Pencils Changed the Wage Structure Too?” Quarterly-Journal-of-Economics;
112(1), February 1997.
Krueger, Alan “How Computers Have Changed the Wage Structure: Evidence from
Microdata, 1984-1989,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 1993.
Ravenga, Ana, “Exporting Jobs? The Impact of Import Competition on Employment and
Wages in U.S. Manufacturing,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 1992.
Solon, Gary, “Intergenerational Income Mobility in the United States,” American
Economic Review, 82(3), June 1992.
4. Unemployment
E & S Chapter 16
Abraham, Katharine and Lawrence Katz, “Cyclical Unemployment: Sectoral Shifts or
Aggregate Disturbances?” Journal of Political Economy, Vol 94, June 1986.
Lilien, David, “Sectoral Shifts and Cyclical Unemployment,” Journal of Political
Economy, Vol. 90, August 1982.
Meyer, Bruce, “Lessons from the U.S. Unemployment Insurance Experiments,” Journal
of Economic Literature, 33(1), March 1995.