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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.