39069 - LABOR ECONOMICS

Conoscenze e abilità da conseguire

At the end of the course student has knowledge of a detailed analysis of the main areas in labor economics, both from a theoretical and an empirical perspective. Topics include the analysis of labor supply by individual and households, labor demand by firms, equilibrium wage differentials and employment outcomes resulting from the interaction of such supply and demand, education and human capital, life-cycle profiles, job search models, and labor market institutions. At the end of the course student has an understanding of how labor markets work and possess the basic tools to undertake original research in the field.

Contenuti

This is a graduate-level (Masters and PhD) course in labor economics. Labor economics is one of the oldest fields in the discipline, and one that generated an enormous amount of theoretical, econometric, and empirical research on a variety of economic and social topics. As such, it is a vast field and it's impossible to cover all relevant topics in a single course. My goal is to give you a detailed overview of the core, fundamental topics. In this sense, this is a traditional labor course. I will stress both theory, econometrics, and empirics. At the end of the course you will master the basic tools needed to understand the academic labor literature and to undertake original research in the field.

We will cover the following topics:

- Review of constrained optimization and consumer theory, as needed

- Labor Supply

- Human capital

- Labor Demand

- Taxation of labor

- Search, matching, and unemployment

- Immigration

Testi/Bibliografia

See references in the detailed Syllabus available at https://sites.google.com/site/giuliozanella/teaching

Metodi didattici

Lectures

Modalità di verifica e valutazione dell'apprendimento

The exam, as usual, verifies:

- Understanding of the material covered in class.

- Ability to apply this material to understand, in this case, the theory, econometrics, and empirics of labor economics.

I will assign two problem sets during the quarter. These will be graded. You are strongly encouraged to work in groups but every student must hand-in her/his own answers. "Photocopied" answers will be considered cheating.

Then there will be a final exam.

The final grade is computed as follows: 15% each problem set; 70% final exam.

Strumenti a supporto della didattica

Class slides & Talk

Link ad altre eventuali informazioni

https://sites.google.com/site/giuliozanella/teaching

Orario di ricevimento

Consulta il sito web di Giulio Zanella