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Notes, Homework, and Class Schedule Textbook Grading System
Location and Time
Lecture: MacLean 166 MWF 9:30
Office Hours: MWf Afternoons and by appointment
Instructor
Gregory Stutes
Office: 380K MacLean Hall
Telephone: 477-4027
E-mail:
stutes@mnstate.edu (I check my e-mail and will respond, but I want you to e-mail responsibly. Questions like, "How do I do this problem," need to be addressed in office hours not e-mail. Questions like, "I missed class tell me what we did," are also problematic because I will not type a lecture to you. Use e-mail professionally, not casually.This course will introduce students to Labor Economics, tools that economists use to analyze labor issues, and the associated public policy concerns. First, we will review economics in general and some of the tools of economists. Using these tools, we will overview how markets work and examine some economic problems. We will build our economic skills by examining separate sections on labor demand, labor supply, and the market equilibrium. After developing the basic labor skills, the class will focus on personnel economics and some applications.
In the past
there has been no systematic disciple on which to base human resources
questions and personnel has been regarded as "soft". That is no longer
true. While our textbook relegates personnel objectives to one
chapter, we will expand to explore several issues. We will use modern
methods to provided detailed and unambiguous answers to HR problems.
This is an advanced class and will require more effort than Econ 202/204.
We are trying to make some sense out of this crazy world; it is a difficult
task, but a very interesting one.
This
course is a Writing Intensive course and developing our writing skills will
be a key focus of the class. You
will be required to develop a series of writing projects involving an
economic model and data and report your findings.
In order to effectively share knowledge gained through economic
research, one must be able to communicate well through writing.
You will spend much of the semester writing and revising a research
paper.
WRITING INTENSIVE LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Kaufman and Hotchkiss: The Economics of Labor Markets
A copy of all additional readings will be available online or through JStor.
The required work for this class consists of two midterm exams, a final exam, a series of papers, several homework assignments, and class participation. Your grade for the semester will be based on your work on these assignments and the quality and quantity of your class participation. The relative weight of each of these components will be:
Midterm 15%
Midterm II 20%
Final 30%
Writing Assignments 17%
Homework 18%
Family Labor History
Each student will be required to conduct research on their families labor market history for the past 100 years or more (e.g. grandparents, great-grandparents, great aunts and uncles). You should choose 2 to 3 members of your family. Based on occupation of the selected family members, you will do research on the occupation of the selected family members, you will do research on the labor market for that particular industry at that time. Topics of labor analysis that you should use include:
General overview of labor market supply and demand at that time
Productivity, firm's labor investment, and training
Wage structure, wage determination, and non-monetary benefits
Impact of the macroeconomic conditions on the market at the time
Efficient human capital use and competitiveness
Labor relations and laws
Discrimination
The paper should be 4 to 7 pages long.
Writing Intensive Assignments--Path 1:
1. Family Labor History
2. Resume
3. Annotated Bibliography--5 academic journal articles: Minimum 3 pages.
4. Book review: Minimum 5 pages
5. Literature Review--at least 5 journal articles, 1 book, an 5 popular press article: Minimum 7 pages.
6. Popular press article or research proposal: Minimum 5 pages.
7. Peer review/referee report of article: Minimum 3 pages.
Writing Intensive Assignments--Path 2:
1. Family Labor History
2. Resume
3. Proposal: Minimum of 3 pages.
4. Literature Review: Minimum of 7 pages.
5. Research Design, Hypotheses, and Measures: Minimum of 4 pages.
6. Findings, Discussion and Conclusion: Minimum of 4 pages, due _________.
7. Final Paper: Minimum of 16 pages, due on or before our final. No
late papers
will be accepted.
Academic Honesty:
Be very careful not to plagiarize. Plagiarism is the copying of another’s
words or ideas without proper citation. It includes copying from another
student, a published source, or the Internet. ALL quotes (even parts of a
sentence) must be clearly identified in quotation marks and properly cited.
Even if you rephrase the words, if the idea is someone else’s, you must give
credit to that person. All written
work must be done individually and properly cited.
(While copying and pasting is common in syllabi, and usually done without
citation, it should be noted that the preceding paragraph was copied from a
colleague’s syllabus.)
Course
Outline and Reading List
Labor Economics
| Date | Subject | Updates | Readings | Homework | Notes |
| 1-11 | Introduction | Chpt. 1 | |||
| 1-13 | Overview | Mankiw's Factor Markets | |||
| 1-15 | Review of S&D | ||||
| 1-18 | MLK--No Clas | ||||
| 1-20 | S&D | ||||
| 1-22 | Supply of Labor | Women and the Economy | |||
| 1-25 | Marginal Value of Time | Family Labor History Project | |||
| 1-27 | HPtime and leisure equilibrium | ||||
| 1-29 | Equilibrium | Resume | |||
| 2-1 | Examples | Chpt 2 |
Link to Homework #1 Due 2-8 Key #1 |
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| 2-3 | Labor Supply | ||||
| 2-5 | |||||
| 2-8 | |||||
| 2-10 | Study Guide 1 | ||||
| 2-12 | |||||
| 2-15 | Midterm I | ||||
| 2-17 | Labor Supply Applications | Chpt 3 | |||
| 2-19 | |||||
| 2-22 | NO CLASS | The links below are modifications
of two works on writing and annotated bibliography and research paper
proposal. They are guides to help you get started, but you are welcome
to use a different style if it is appropriate to your work. Annotated Bibliography Proposal |
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| 2-24 | NO CLASS | ||||
| 2-26 | |||||
| 3.1 | Demand for Labor | Chpt 4 |
Data Codebook |
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| 3-3 | |||||
| 3-5 | NO CLASS--WINTER INSTITUTE | ||||
| 3-8 | The Determination of Wages | Chpt 6 | |||
| 3-10 | |||||
| 3-15 | |||||
| 3-17 | Spring Break | ||||
| 3-19 | Spring Break | ||||
| 3-22 | Spring Break | ||||
| 3-24 | Hiring Standards | Chpt 10 | Tips on how to write a book review | ||
| 3-26 | Monitoring Costs and Adverse Selection | ||||
| 3-29 | NO CLASS | ||||
| 3-31 | Midterm II | ||||
| 4-2 | Workers' Productivity | ||||
| 4-5 | Piece Rate or Salary | ||||
| 4-7 | Human Capital | Chpt 7 | Study Guide II | ||
| 4-9 | OTJ Training and Screening | ||||
| 4-12 | Motivate Multiple Types of Workers | ||||
| 4-14 | Tournament 1 | ||||
| 4-16 | Tournament 2 | ||||
| 4-19 | Seniority | ||||
| 4-21 | Team Incentives | ||||
| 4-23 | Team Incentives | ||||
| 4-26 | Training |
Computer Assignment Women in the Labor Force DataSet |
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| 4-28 | Training 2 | ||||
| 4-30 | Occupation Wage Differences | Chpt 9 | Study Guide | ||
| 5-3 | OWD 2 | Comp Quest | |||
| 5-5 | Study Day |
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The Final will be on the official scheduled date and time. Please consult your Schedule of Classes