In both rich and developing countries, the economic resources on which people live come principally from their labor market earnings. Labor economics is concerned with such questions as: (a) What determines the circumstances under which individuals sell their leisure endowments as labor market work, and the returns they receive by working? (b) What determines firms' demand for the labor as opposed to other productive inputs? (c) How do institutional and policy considerations, like the imposition of minimum wages rules, unionization, or free trade affect how workers fare in the labor market? This class addresses these and other questions. It will introduce and formally assess the major modern theoretical insights about the functioning of the labor market. In addition, it will critically assess empirical work on these themes.
