Course description
The course will introduce students to recent theories and methods for analytic study of labor markets. The course emphasizes relationships between macro phenomena such as unemployment and wage and productivity distributions, and rational behavor of agents in the labor market, focussing on informational problems arising in labor market interactions. Important themes for analytical study are theories of efficiency wages, search, matching and wage formation, theories of labor contracts and union behavior, human capital theory, labor heterogeneity, and effects of mobility costs.
Reading list
R. Cooper: Wage and employment patterns in labor contracts: Microfundations and macroeconomic implications. Harwood Academic Publishers 1987, Chapters 1,2 and 4.
D. Acemoglu and J. S. Pischke: The structure of wages and investment in general training. Journal of Political Economy, 107, 1999, 539-572. (Download the article from www.jstor.org)
L. Johansen: Some Notes on Employment and Unemployment with Heterogeneous Labor Nationaløkonomisk tidsskrift, 1982. (K)
E. Kandel and E. Lazear: Peer pressure and partnerships. Journal of Political Economy, 10, 801-817. (Download the article from www.jstor.org)
E. Lazear: Job security provisions and unemployment. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 105, 1990, 699-726. (Download the article from www.jstor.org)
I. McDonald and R. Solow: Wage bargaining and employment. American Economic Review, 71, 1981, 896-908. (Download the article from www.jstor.org)
D. Mortensen and C. Pissarides: New developments in models of search in the labor market. In Handbook of labor economics, vol 3B, pages 2567-2601. Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1999. (K)
C. Shapiro and J. E. Stiglitz: Equilibrium unemployment and a worker discipline device. American Economic Review, 74, 1984, 433-444. (Download the article from www.jstor.org)
J. Strand: Firing costs and average employment with efficient labor contracts. Note, 1996 (12 pp) (K)
J. Strand: Wage bargaining and turnover costs with heterogeneous labor and asymmetric information. Labour Economics, 7, 2000, 95-116. (K)
A. Weiss: Efficiency Wages. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1991. Chapters 1-2, 4-7. (K)
In addition to this list, lecture notes for the course, posted on the lecturer's home page, will be used as supplementary course material.
References marked with (K) will be part of a compendium and for sale at Kopiutsalget, Akademika
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Additional reading list
R. Flanagan, K. Moene og M. Wallerstein: Trade union behaviour, pay bargaining and economic performance. Part II. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993.
D. S. Hamermesh og G. A. Pfann: Adjustment costs in factor demand, Journal of Economic Literature, 34, 1996, pp 1264-1292. (Download the article from www.jstor.org)
M. Killingsworth: Labor Supply. Cambridge University Press, 1983, in particular kap. 1-2, 5.1-2, 5.6, 6.1-6.3.
K. I. Wolpin: Empirical methods for the study of labor force dynamics. Harwood Academic Publishers, 1995.
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