Economics 180

Labor Economics

Fall 2009

 

Professor Lori Kletzer

439 Engineering 2 Bldg.

lkletzer@ucsc.edu

459-3596

 

News and announcements

 

Paper assignment – posted 11/11/09, due 12/3/09 by 5pm

 

Oct. 15: the book I mentioned in class today, Crossing the Finish Line: Completing College at America’s Public Universities, by William G. Bowen, Matthew M. Chingos, and Michael S. McPherson (here’s the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Finish-Line-Completing-Universities/dp/069113748X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255709434&sr=1-1)

 

Course syllabus

 

 

Office hours:

Mondays and Wednesdays, 10-11am, or by appointment

Fridays, 10-11am, in Kerr 131

 

TA office hours:

 

Aaron Meininger, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 2:30-4:30, 493 Engineering 2

Email: a.g.meininger@gmail.com

 

Additional course readings

 

“Is Tomorrow Another Day? The Labor Supply of New York City Cabdrivers,” Henry S. Farber, Journal of Political Economy, 2005, vol. 113, no. 1, pp. 46-82.

 

“A Reassessment of the New Economics of the Minimum Wage Literature with Monthly Data from the Current Population Survey,” Richard V. Burkhauser, Kenneth A. Couch, David C. Wittenberg, Journal of Labor Economics, 2000, ol. 18, no. 4 , pp. 653-680.

 

“Preparing the Workers of Today for the Jobs of Tomorrow,” Council of Economic Advisers, July 2009.

 

“A Submerging Labor Market Institution? Unions and the Nonwage Aspects of Work,” Thomas C. Buchmueller, John E. DiNardo, and Robert G. Valletta, in R.B Freeman, J. Hersch, and L. Mishel, eds., Emerging Labor Market Institutions for the Twenty-First Century, University of Chicago Press, 2004.

 

“Estimates of the Economic Return to Schooling from a New Sample of Twins,” Orley Ashenfelter and Alan Krueger, Princeton University, Industrial Relations Section, Working Paper #304, July 1992.

 

 

Assignments

 

“Impromptu Homework #2” – posted 10/7/09, due at the start of class on Oct. 13. Answer Graph

 

Problem Set #1 – due October 22, 2009, at the start of class

Problem Set #1 Answer Key – posted 10/27/09

 

Take home midterm

Midterm answer sketch

 

Problem set #2 – posted 11/18/09, due 12/1/09 at the start of class. Answer sketch.

 

 

 

Useful web sites:

 

Bureau of Labor Statistics (stats.bls.gov)