Applied Labor Economics

Instructors

MIYAMOTO Hiroaki

Term / Language / Credits

S1S2 / English / 2

Objectives

This is a graduate course in labor economics. The course presents theories and empirical facts of labor markets. The course mainly focuses on aggregate labor market performance such as unemployment, wage determination, worker reallocation, and productivity. This course emphasizes the connection between theories and practice. Topics include: labor demand, labor supply, search theory, job creation and destruction, worker reallocation, unemployment, wage determination, human capital investment, and labor market policies. The course also covers issues facing the Japanese labor market. There will be both theoretical exercises and numerical assignments.

Keywords

Unemployment, Wages, Labor demand and supply, Japanese labor market

Schedule

1. Introduction
2. Labor demand
3. Labor supply
4. Labor market equilibrium
5. Unemployment dynamics
6. Unemployment dynamics
7. Labor mobility
8. Midterm exam
9. Labor search
10. Labor search
11. Wage determination
12. Human capital
13. Labor market policies
14. Issues in the Japanese labor market
15. Final exam

Teaching Methods

Lecture

Grading

Grades will be based on three things, exams, problem sets, and student presentation. Problem sets count for 20% of your final grade,presentation accounts for 30%, and exams count for the remaining 50%. The exam will be held in class.

Required Textbook

We will use a variety of different sources. There are no required textbooks, but the course uses the following two as recommend textbooks.
● Ehrenberg, Ronald G., and Robert Stewart Smith. Modern Labor Economics: Theory and Public Policy, 10th Edition, Addison-Wesley.
● George J. Borjas. Labor Economics, 6th Edition, McGraw-Hill.

Reference Books

Additional Readings
● Pissarides, Christopher A., Equilibrium Unemployment Theory, 2nd edition, 2000, MIT Press.
● Mortensen, Dale T. Wage Dispersion, 2003, MIT Press.
● Davis, Steven J., John C. Haltiwanger, and Scott Schuh, Job Creation and Destruction, 1996, MIT Press.
● Lecture notes.
● Assigned articles.

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