Interactive Syllabus

Introduction

Course objectives. The course is designed to provide an introduction to the theory and practice of contemporary labor economics. The course develops an understanding of the determinants of wage rates and employment levels in labor markets. The tools of neoclassical economics will be used to examine contemporary policy issues, such as minimum wage laws, labor market discrimination, employment training programs, and the economic impact of unions. The first part of the course describes labor supply decisions made by rational households, labor demand decisions made by profit-maximizing firms, and compensating wage differentials under the assumption of competitive markets. The second part of the course is empirical and includes the analysis of wage differentials and human capital investments. Attention is given to wage incentive schemes, discrimination, wage bargaining, and unemployment.

Learning outcomes. At the end of the course, students should be able to: - explain the motivations and behaviors of individual agents in the labor market, - evaluate the impact of government policy and labor market regulations on the functioning of labor markets, - describe economic consequences of labor unions, - explain factors behind the wage differentials, - explain push and pull factors of labor migration, - explain the determinants of unemployment, - explain factors influencing decisions about human capital investments.

Contacts and meetings with students

My email is luca.fumarco@econ.muni.cz

My room is on the fifth floor, room 523, on the left corridor when you exit either of the two central lifts.

I do receive students in my office, from 14,00 to 16,00, on any lesson day, without the need to set a meeting (i.e. do not contact me to ask whether you can come: just come). However, if you want to meet on any other day and time, please contact me via email, and let's set up a meeting.

You can send me a message anytime and I usually answer within a couple of days. However, sometimes it takes time or I simply miss your message (also, if you write to me with your private email, the email provider might automagically dump it in the spam / junk email by mistake). So, if my answer takes too long to reach you, please send me a soft reminder via email; never take the lack of a response as a deliberate act.

Topics schedule

1. Introduction to Labor Economics (this is for you to read before the course starts)
   
2. Labor Supply, February 13th
   
3. Labor Demand, February 20th
   
4. Labor Market Equilibrium, February 27th Deadline extra activity 1
5. Compensating Wage Differentials, March 6th
6. Human Capital, March 13th
   
7. Wage Structure, March 20th (guest lecturer: Zach Porreca; recently graduated at West Virginia University, US, next stating a position as Asst. Prof. at Bocconi University, Italy)
8. Study week, March 28th Deadline extra activity 2
   
9. Labor Mobility, April 3rd (this is for your to read) + Mid-term (on content from lessons 1 to 6)
   
10. Public holiday, April 10th
11. Labor Market Discrimination, April 17th  (guest lecturer: Isha Gupta; graduated at University of Padua, Italy, postdoc at MUNI )
12. Labor Unions, April 24th
    
13. Public holiday, May 1st (however, Incentive pay is for you to read)
    
14. Public holiday, May 8th (however, Unemployment  is for you to read) Deadline extra activity 3

This topics schedule is suggestive of the course progress through Borjas' book (see the literature below).

There could be two additional guest lecturers that will be announced in due time.

Literature

BORJAS, George J. Labor economics. Eight edition. New York: McGraw-Hill Education, 2020. xvi, 478. ISBN 9781260565522. info

Evaluation scale

Students will be evaluated based on three extra activities, one mid-term exam, and the final exam.

Extra activities, the mid-term exam, and the final cumulative exam will be weighted based on the following percentages.

In determining your final letter grade, I will cumulate your points through attendance, extra activities, and exams. I will then convert this final percentage grade to a final letter grade as follows:

• A: (88; 100]
• B: (81; 88]
• C: (74; 81]
• D: (67; 74]
• E: [60; 67]
• F: [0, 60)

To avoid a subjective evaluation, I do not round grades up if you are close to a cut-off or otherwise tweak grades. Please do not ask me to do this. Please note that I do not use a curve to grade your assignments or exams.

However, there is an objective way to round up the grades of students who are on the edge of passing: if your final grade is [55, 59], you have the right to conduct one reparation assignment to allow you to get 60 (more details on this below).

Guest lectures will work this way: during around three-fourths of the time, the guest lecturer will discuss the content of the lecture slides, while in the reminder one-fourth of the time, the guest lecturer will discuss a study related to the course (this part of the lecture will not be part of the exam, nonetheless it is really cool and you should definitely attend!).

Attendance - graded

Attendance is not mandatory as per university regulations; however, it is warmly recommended and counts against the grade. More specifically, attendance is rewarded with 5% of the final grade at most; in order to receive these points, you need to have attended at least 6 lessons. To make the 1h50' more bearable, we will have a 10' break in the middle of the lesson.

Studies have shown that students learn better when they attend in-person classes. Direct personalized learning experiences motivate students and allow them to stay focused and avoid lagging behind. In other words, it is in your own interest to attend: it increases the learning experience and satisfaction with the course. Moreover, lessons are the best moment when to ask questions about material that you have not understood.

Although the slides are available now, and you have the book, I encourage you to take notes during the lessons. Studies have shown this is a very effective way to learn. Since the material is already available, I expect that before coming to the lesson you will have already read "at least" the slides for that lesson (e.g. on March 12th, you read the slides to be discussed in class on March 13th).

There is no option to attend online. However, if you had to miss a lecture for important reasons (e.g. for medical reasons), you could watch the video from 2021 hybrid lectures. These lectures are not accessible to everyone, they will be made accessible only to those students who need them.

In-class activities - not graded

In-class activities will be planned in due course and depend on time availability. These activities are not graded and they are meant to help you learn and make me understand whether something is unclear to you. Typically, these activities are in-class oral questions from me to you on what is discussed on that same day; additionally, at the end of each lesson, we will use either Socrative (room name: FUMARCO) or Mentimeter  (the lecture-specific code will be given in class). Please sign up on both websites, it is free, and download the app, which is available on the cellphone, ipad, laptop.

There is a positive correlation between the questions that I ask in class and the likelihood that similar questions will appear in the exams.

Extra activities - graded

Extra activity 1 is a quiz about this syllabus. It will be composed of a few multiple-choice questions. In order to receive 1 bonus point on your final grade, you have to pass at least 70% of the quiz.

Extra activity 2 will be planned in due course. For example, it could be a short group essay and/or a take-home assignment.

For the academic year 2022/2023, Extra activity 3 will be a take-home assignment with a greater focus on Labour Mobility, Incentive Pay, and Unemployment. To a lesser extent, you will be quizzed about Labour Market Discrimination and Labour Unions as well.

Extra activities 2 and 3 do not give you a pass/fail, but an actual score that adds to your final grade (e.g. 30% of Extra activity 2, translates into 3 additional points on your final grade).

There is no resit of extra activities and, if you miss them, you will not be able to get those points (e.g. if you miss Extra activity 3, it is a 0% of said activity, and you can get at most 85 as your final grade, which is a B; and, if you miss both activities, you can get at most 75 as your final grade, which is a C).

Exams - graded

There are two exams, each of which has multiple-choice questions with exactly one correct answer.

• Mid-term exam: 0-35 points

• Final cumulative exam: 0-40 points

The exact assessment dates and their content will be announced in due course, although the Mid-term will be (ideally) on April 3rd (see the topics schedule). Both Mid-term and Final cumulative exams will be closed book, closed notes exams.

The Mid-term will include questions on material covered by the textbook from weeks 1 to 6. There is no resit of the mid-term exam: those people who fail it will have to take a longer final exam that covers chapters 1 to 12 and that is worth 75% of your final grade.

The Final cumulative exam will include mostly questions on material from weeks 7 to 14 and some questions on material from weeks 1 to 6.

Reparation assignment - graded

If your final grade is [55, 59] (i.e. the grade that combines the results from the three Extra activities + the Mid-term + the Final cumulative exam) and so you are going to fail on the edge, you can choose to conduct one reparation assignment which allows you to get 60--if passed, instead of resitting the final cumulative exam.

The reparation assignment is a take-home assignment, composed of multiple-choice questions on the entire program of the course. In order to transform your final grade into a 60, you have to respond correctly to at least 60% of the questions.

There is no resit of the reparation assignment. If you fail it, you retake the Final cumulative exam (either the long or the short one, depending on how you performed in your mid-term).

Exams and assignments - could banks contain errors?

Please note that your exams and assignments in this course are usually multiple-choice quizzes that come from standardized test banks from one of the most famous labour economics books in the world. Mistakes are very rare and there is no space for arbitrary decisions on whether an answer is correct or not.

The policy of zero tolerance for academic dishonesty will be strictly applied.