Economics 152
Class Topics and Reading Assignments
Course Calendar:
Week of:
January 18:
Introduction and Overview of the U.S. Labor Market
January 25:
Labor Demand: Basic Theory
February 1:
Labor Demand: Elasticities, Minimum Wage, Quasi-Fixed Factors
February 8:
Labor Supply: The Static Case
February 15:
Labor Supply: Dynamic Issues
February 22:
Human Capital I: Economics of Education
March 1:
Human Capital II: Training
March 8:
Mid-Term Exam on March 11
March 15:
Pay and Productivity
March 22:
SPRING BREAK!!!
March 29:
Discrimination by Race, Ethnicity and Gender
April 5:
Discrimination by Race, Ethnicity and Gender: continued
April 12:
Immigration and Mobility
April 19:
Wage inequality, Technology and Trade
April 26:
Unemployment
May 3:
Wrap Up and Review
May 19:
Final Exam 5-8PM (Location to be announced.)
CLASS TOPICS AND READING ASSIGNMENTS
January 19
Introduction to Econ 152 and to Labor Economics
Ehrenberg and Smith (E/S) Chapter 1.
January 21
Overview of the United States Labor Market
E/S Chapter 2.
January 26 & 28
Labor Demand
E/S Chapter 3.
February 2 & 4
Labor Demand: Elasticities and the Minimum Wage
E/S Chapter 4.
David Card and Alan Krueger, Myth and Measurement,
Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1995, Chapter 1.
February 9
Labor Demand: Quasi-Fixed Factors
E/S Chapter 5.
February 11, 16 & 18 Labor
Supply
E/S Chapters 6 and 7.
Week of February 15
Section: Problem Set #1 due
Supply and Demand
February 23, 25, &
Human Capital: Economics of Education and Training
March 2
E/S Chapter 9.
Orley Ashenfelter and Cecelia Rouse, "Schooling, Education,
and Income in America: Cracks in the Bell Curve" Princeton University Industrial
Relations Section Working Paper No. 407, November 1998.
Clair Brown, "Income Distribution in an Institutional
World" in Garth Mangum and Peter Philips, editors, Three Worlds of Labor
Economics, M.E. Sharpe, Inc., Armonk, New York, 1988
Week of March 1
Section: Problem Set #2 due
The Returns to Education
March 4 Catch up day! No class!
March 9 Review for Mid-Term Exam
March 11 In Class Mid-Term Exam (Covers all material
through March 9)
March 16 & 18
Pay and Productivity
E/S Chapter 11.
Week of March 22
Spring Break (Enjoy!)
March 30 &
Discrimination by Race, Ethnicity and Gender
April 1 & 6
E/S Chapter 12
Darity and Mason, "Evidence on Discrimination in Consumer
Markets," Journal of Economic Perspectives. 12(2) Spring 1998.
Holzer and Neumark, "What Does Affirmative Action Do?"
NBER Working Paper 6605, June 1998.
April 8 & 13
Immigration and Mobility
E/S Chapter 10.
David Card, John DiNardo, and Eugena Estes, "The More
Things Change: Immigrants and the Children of Immigrants in the 1940, the
1970s, and the 1990s" NBER Working Paper 6519, April 1998.
Week of April 12
Section: Problem Set #3 due
Estimating Wage Differentials.
April 15, 20 & 22
Earnings Inequality, Technology, and Trade
E/S Chapter 14.
Peter Gottschalk, "Inequality, Income Growth, and Mobility:
The Basic Facts," Journal of Economic Perspectives. 11(2) Spring
1997.
Robert Feenstra, "Integration of Trade and Disintegration
of Production in the Global Economy". Journal of Economic Perspectives.
12(4) Fall 1998.
Brown and Campbell, "Work and Technology". Industrial
Relations (forthcoming 1999).
April 27 & 29
Unemployment
E/S Chapter 15, pp. 562-595.
Olivier Blanchard and Lawrence Katz, "What We Know and
Do Not Know About the Natural Rate of Unemployment," Journal of Economic
Perspectives 11(1) Winter 1997.
James Galbraith, "Time to Ditch the NAIRU," Journal
of Economic Perspectives. 11(1) Winter 1997.
Week of May 3
Section: Policy Paper due.
May 4 Catch up day! No class!
May 6 Review for Final
May 19 Final Exam 5-8PM (Covers all material.)
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Last Updated January 14, 1999 by Ben
Campbell
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