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PROGRAMME OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES MPHIL “ECONOMICS”

LABOUR ECONOMICS

Elective Course - 3nd Semester (Autumn 2nd year) | Course ID: Α203 | E-Class
According to the curriculum, students must choose two elective courses during the third semester

Lecturer

Evangelia Papapetrou

Language of Instruction

English

Course Description

This course is an overview of labour economics at the graduate level. The course covers most of the classical topics of labour economics, such as static and dynamic labour supply, labour demand, the human capital model, general training, human capital and growth, fertility and labour supply, fertility and economic growth, compensating wage differentials, labour contracts, labour unions, strikes and bargaining, labour market discrimination, wage decomposition and labour market discrimination, unemployment and labour markets, search theory and the macroeconomics of the labour markets.

The course hours consist of a combination of lectures and student presentations. Almost all texts to be read are available in the major journals and the Handbook of Labor Economics and are provided in class or available in the e-class.

Bibliography

  • Borjas, George J. (2020), Labor Economics, McGraw-Hill, 8th/e.
  • Ehrenberg, Ronald G. and Robert S. Smith, (2015), Modern Labor Economics: Theory and Public Policy, Addison-Wesley, 12th edition.
  • McConnell, Campbell, Stanley Brue, David Macpherson, (2009), Contemporary Labor Economics: Theory and Public Policy, McGraw-Hill, 9th edition.
  • Kaufman, Bruce E., and Julie L. Hotchkiss, (2005), The Economics of Labor Markets, Harcourt Publishers Limited, London, 7th edition.
  • Boeri, Tito, and Jan van Ours (2013), The Economics of Imperfect Labor Markets, Princeton University Press, 2nd edition.

Students can use the following graduate textbook:

  • Cahuc, Pierre, and André Zylberberg, (2014), Labor Economics, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England, 2nd edition.

Handbook of Labor Economics, North-Holland, Amsterdam

Orley C. Ashenfelter and Richard Layard (eds), Vols 1 & 2 (1986)

Orley C. Ashenfelter and David Card (eds), Vols 3A, 3B, 3C (1999)

David Card and Orley C. Ashenfelter (eds), Vols 4A & 4B (2011)

Assessment

The course will include the following components: reports and article presentations, a final written examination and the preparation and presentation of an original research article.

  1. Article presentations (50%). During the semester, students will be required to present and submit peer-reviewed journal articles to the class on each of the topics covered in the course. The article presentation should include a statement of the author's main goals for writing the article, a summary of how the author(s) achieved these goals (methods, data, etc.), a critical approach to the methodology and data chosen, and a description of the article's contribution (did the article achieve its goals; justify your arguments) and directions for future research.
  2. Final written examination (30%).
  3. Assignment (20%).

Drafting of a paper on a selected topic. The paper will consist of the following parts: literature review, methodological aspects of the empirical approach, empirical results, and conclusions.