MPV_PTPZ Labour Market and Employment Policy

Faculty of Economics and Administration
Spring 2023
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Martin Guzi, Ph.D. (seminar tutor)
Dr. Magdalena Adamus (seminar tutor)
Guaranteed by
Mgr. Martin Guzi, Ph.D.
Department of Public Economics – Faculty of Economics and Administration
Contact Person: Jana Biskupová
Supplier department: Department of Public Economics – Faculty of Economics and Administration
Timetable of Seminar Groups
MPV_PTPZ/01: Tue 10:00–11:50 P304, except Tue 28. 3., M. Guzi
Prerequisites
The course has no formal prerequisites but it does require a willingness to engage with numbers and data, as well as some basic microeconomics.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 7 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
Classes have a seminar format with a strong focus on class discussion and cooperative learning. Students taking this course will learn from real-life examples to understand the key employment policy challenges and the role of labour market institutions.
The following topics will be discussed: employment and wage determination, income inequality, labour market flexibility, labour mobility and migration, work careers of university graduates, work-life balance, job satisfaction, cultural and social factors contributing to gender gaps in the labour market, income adequacy, precarious work, incentive pay, labour market discrimination, unemployment, undeclared work, and platform work.
Learning outcomes
Students will learn to discuss, understand and tackle contemporary labour market problems and policy challenges. The course will put an emphasis on empirical research and encourage students to elaborate selective case studies into class presentations.
Knowledge, skills and competence you will learn:
• understand the role of labour market institutions
• analyse current policy questions related to labour markets
• work with international open databases and interpret data
• use of the course content in your own academic work, for example in analyses that are part of the master thesis
Syllabus
  • 1. Labour market characteristics
  • • The purpose and motivation to work, labour market during the economic crisis, demographic development and its impact on the labour market, minimum wage vs reservation wage, job vacancy, Mincer equation and interpretation of coefficients, unobserved factors influencing the wage, Czech labour market characteristics (gender gaps, part-time contract, unemployment rate).
  • 2. Economics of Gender
  • • gender wage gap, gender employment gap, statistical discrimination, gender differences in education and field of study, consequences of high gender pay gap (poverty trap for women), explained and unexplained part of wage gap, Mathilda effect, sticky floor, glass ceiling.
  • 3. Cultural and social factors contributing to gender gaps in the labour market?
  • • the price of motherhood, son preference and its impact on the prospects of women in the society; why higher price of tea contributed to more women born in China over the years?, gender stereotypes, historical and geographical changes of gender concept, missing women, division of labour in the family, (unpaid) household work.
  • 4. Labour market discrimination
  • • hiring discrimination, correspondence study, beauty discrimination, anonymous job applications, discrimination in online markets
  • 5. Labour market segmentation and precarious work
  • • Decent work, non-standard work contracts, irregular working time, DDD jobs, zero-hour contracts, undeclared work.
  • 6. Income adequacy, minimum wage and living wage
  • • Employment effects of minimum wage, poverty trap, poverty persistence, living wage and the cost of living calculation, McWage Index, cross-country comparison of wage rates.
  • 7. Unemployment and job search
  • • job search and matching efficiency, job referrals, Beveridge curve, unemployment stigma, main strategies of unemployment elimination/reduction, regulation of the labour market, flexicurity, prison work.
  • 8. Income inequality
  • • Gini coefficient, 20:20 ratio, reforms reducing income inequality and poverty
  • 9. Labour market mobility and work migration
  • • theory of migration, Roy selection, international labour migration.
  • 10. Work careers of university graduates • earnings advantages from education, work careers of university graduates, why starting your career during a strong economy is better?
  • 11. Future of the labour market
  • • Robotization and automatization, platform work, life-long education, adult skills.
Literature
  • IZA World of Labor is an online platform that provides policy analysts, journalists, academics and society generally with relevant and concise information on labor market issues.
  • Our World in Data
Teaching methods
Classes have a seminar format with a strong focus on class discussion and cooperative learning. We expect students to come to the classes. They are expected to participate in the class discussions and introduce the papers that they have read and also, their thoughts about them. If students miss classes not only will they not know the material, but they also deprive their classmates and lecturer of learning from them, and we lose the benefit of their contribution.
Assessment methods
You can earn 100 points and your grade will depend on the overall score. Grading is based on attendance (20 points), critical summary writing (10 points), policy project (30), online midterm exam (15 points) and in-class final exam (25 points). The basic condition for getting a grade (A-E) from the course is to gain at least 60 points overall and at least 15 points (60%) from the final exam. Grading: A 100 - 92 points, B 91 – 84 points, C 83 – 76 points, D 75 – 68 points, E 67 – 60 points, F less than 60 points
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
The course is taught annually.
Credit evaluation note: k = 1.
Teacher's information
Instructor: Martin Guzi,
Office Hours: by appointment,
Email: martin.guzi@econ.muni.cz
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2009, Autumn 2010, Autumn 2011, Autumn 2012, Autumn 2013, Autumn 2014, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2024, Spring 2025.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2023, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/econ/spring2023/MPV_PTPZ