LFU:online

The labor market is an important part of everyone's life. First, we invest in our education to accumulate human capital, i.e. we prepare ourselves to participate in the labor market. Then we spend a substantial fraction of our live on the labor market, where we either supply (or demand) labor. In this course, we explore the ideas economists use to understand how labor markets work. This will aid our understanding of topics such as education and training, employment and unemployment, determination of wages, discrimination and migration.

The focus of this course is on understanding the fundamental models of labor economics keeping also close contact to current empirical research. In addition, we study the role of public policy in affecting wage and employment. We will cover the theory of static and dynamic labor supply, theories of labor demand, labor market equilibrium, the theory of compensating wage differences, human capital, the production of education, migration and labor market discrimination.

Lecture, discussions and assignments

Final exam

The course will largely follow the required textbook: Labor Economics, by George J. Borjas.