Econ 8503-Wages and Employment
Dept. of Economics
University of Minnesota
Spring 2002
Tentative Syllabus
Thomas Holmes
949 Heller Hall
612-625-4512
holmes@econ.umn.edu
This is the third half-semester course in the Labor Economics field sequence. This course will focus on labor markets in the context of the larger economy. The course will discuss discuss fundamantal changes that are affecting the organization of work and distribution of wages. Particular topics that will be discussed include:
(1) Why has the skill premium increased?
(2) What is behind the decline of labor unions?
(3) What accounts for the rise of outsourcing and the decline in the size of manufacturing plants?
(4) What is the relationship between increased competition and labor productivity?
(5) What is the role of cities in labor markets?
The course requirements include a final exam (65 percent), class participation (10 percent) and a writing requirement (25 percent). There will be flexibility in how the student completes the writing requirement. This can involve either an original paper, a paper proprosal, or a critique and extension of a paper in the literature.
The reading for the course will be drawn from the following list (additional papers will also be added.
Kremer, Michael and Benjamin A. Olken, "A Biological Model of Unions,” NBER working paper #W8257, April 2001, Link
Acemoglue, D., P. Aghion, G. Violante, “Deunionization, Technical Change and Inequality, Link
Lewis, H. Gregg, "Union Relative Wage Effects," in Orley Ashenfelter and Richard Layard, eds., Handbook of Labor Economics, North-Holland, 1986.
Card, David, "The Effects of Unions on the Structure of Wages: A Longitudinal Analysis," Econometrica 1996, 957-979. Link
Farber, Henry, “Union Sucess in Representation Elections: Why Does Unit Size Matter?” Industrial and Labor Relations ReviewI, Vol. 54,January 2001
Farber, Henry S. and Bruce Western. "Ronald Reagan and the Politics of Declining Union Organization," December 2001, Princeton Industrial Relations Working Paper, 460. Link
Farber Henry S. and Bruce Western, ``Round up the Usual Suspects: The Decline of Unions in the Private Sector, 1973-1998,'' Princeton University Industrial Relations Working Paper \#437, April 2000. Link
Bronars, Stephen and Donald R. Deere, "Union Organizing Activity, Firm Growth, and the Business Cycle," AER, March 1993
Lalonde, Robert J. ; Marschke, Gerard ; Troske, Kenneth, ``Using Longitudinal Data on Establishments to Analyze the Effects of Union Organizing Campaigns in the United States,'' Annales d'Economie et de Statistique v0, n41-42 (Jan.-June 1996): 155-85
Brown Charles, and James Medoff (1989), “The Employer Size-Wage Effect”, JPE 97, 1027-1059. Link
Davis, Steve J. and John Haltiwanger, “Wage Dispersion between and within U.S. Manufacturing Plants 1963-86,” Brookings Papers: Microeconomics 1991, 115-200.
Oi, Walter Y. and Todd L. Idson, “Firm Size and Wages,” Handbook of Labor Economics, Ch 33, vol. 3B, 1999.
Bronars, Tephen G. and Melissa Famulari, “Shareholder Wealth and Wages: Evidence for White Collar Workers, JPE, vol 109, no. 2, April 2001, 328-354.
Acemoglu, Daron and Robert Shimer, “Wage and Technology Dispersion,” forthcoming Review of Economics Studies. Web Link
Abowd, John M., Francis Kramarz, and David Margolis, “High Wage Workers and High Wage Firms,” Econometrica vol 67, March 1999, 251-333.
Abowd and Kramarz, “The Analysis of Labor Markets using Matched Employer-Employee Data,” Handbook of Labor Economics, Ch 40, vol. 3B, 1999.
Borjas, George and Valerie Ramey, “Market Responses to Interindustry Wage Differentials,” NBER working paper #7799, July 2000. Link
Leamer, Edward E., “Effort, Wages, and the International Division of Labor,” Journal of Political Economy, 1999, pp. 1127-1162 Link
Katz and Summers, Industry Rents: Evidence and Implications, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity v0, n0 (Special Issue, 1989): 209-75
Krueger, Alan B.
and Lawrence H. Summers, Efficiency Wages and the Inter-Industry Wage
Structure, Econometrica, 1988, pp. 259-293, Link
Per Krusell, Lee
Ohanian, Victor Rios Rill, and Giovanni L. Violante, “Capital-Skill
Complementarity and Inequality,” Econometrica
Web Site
Violante, Giovanni, “Technological Acceleration, Skill Transferability, and the Rise of Residual Inequality, forthcoming QJE, Link
Aghion, Howitt and Violante, “General Purpose Technology and Within-Group Wage Inequality,” MIT working paper.
Michael Kremer and Eric Maskin, “Wage Inequality and Segregation by Skill,”, NBERWorking Paper 5718, 1995
Mobius, Markus, “The Evolution of Work,” MIT working paper, 2000, Link
Acemoglu, Daron, “Patterns of Skill Premia,”
MIT working paper, 2001. Link
Acemoglu, Daron, “Technical Change and the
Labor Market,” NBER W8700, July 2000. Link
Fernandez, Raquel and Richard Rogerson, “Sorting and Long-Run Inequality,” QJE Nov. 2001.
Mitchell, Matt, “Specialization and the Skill Premium in the 20th Century, Minneapolis Fed working paper Link
Bound, John and George Johnson, “Changes in the Structure of Wages in the 1980's: An Evaluation of Alternative Explanations” American Economic Review, June 1992, pp. 371-392 Link
Freeman, Richard, “Income Inequality and Trade: Are Your Wages Set in Beijing?, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1995, pp. 15-32, Link
John McLaren, “Globalization and Vertical Structure,” AER Dec. 2000.
Autor, David, “Outsourcing at Will: Unjust Dismissal Doctrine and the Growth of Temporary Help Employment , Harvard Manuscript, February 2000, Web Link
Peter Cappelli, “Examining the Incidence of Downsizing and Its Effect on Establishment Performance, NBER Working Paper No. W7742, June 2000
Martin Neil Baily, Eric J. Bartelsman, John Haltiwanger, “Downsizing and Productivity Growth: Myth or Reality? NBER Working Paper No. W4741, May 1994, published in Small Business Economics v8, n4 (August 1996):
Feenstra, Robert C. and Hanson, Gordon H, “Globalization, Outsourcing, and Wage Inequality,” AER Papers and Proceedings, 1996, 297-322. Link
Grossman Gene M. and Elhanan Helpman, “Integration versus Outsourcining in Industry Equilibrium,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, February, 2002.
Holmes, Thomas J. “Localization of Industry and Vertical Integration,” Review of Economics and Statistics Link (Working paper version with theory section Link)
Hoxby, Caroline Minter (1996), "How Teachers' Unions Affect Education Production,'' Quarterly Journal of Economics 111, 671-718.
Hildreth, Andrew and Oswald, Andrew, 'Wages and Rent-Sharing: Evidence from Company and Establishment Panels', Journal of Labor Economics, 1997, 15, 318-337.
Salinger, Michael (1984), ``Tobin's q, Unionization, and the Concentration-Profits Relationship '' Rand Journal of Economics
Rose, Nancy, (1987), ''Rent Sharing and Regulation: Evidence from the Trucking Industry,'' Journal of Political Economy 95, 1146-78.
Abowd and Lemieux (1993), “The Effects of Product Market Competition on Collective Bargaining Agreements: the Case of Foreign Competition in Canada,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 108, 983-1014.
Ciccone, Antonio and Robert E. Hall (1996), ``Productivity and the Density of Economic Activity,'' American Economic Review 86, 54-70.
Eaton, Jonathan, and Zvi Eckstein (1997), ``Cities and Growth: Theory and Evidence from France and Japan,'' Regional Science and Urban Economics, 27, 443-474.
Glaeser, Edward L. (1999), ``Learning in Cities,'' Journal of Urban Economics,
Glaeser, Edward L. and David C.Mare, (2001), Journal of Labor Economics 19, 316-342. Link
Lucas, Robert (2001), ``Externalities and Cities,'' Review of Economic Dynamics 4, 245-274.
Lucas, Robert and Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, “On the Internal Structure of Cities, forthcoming Econometrica. Link
Glaeser et al, “Why do the Poor Live in Cities,” NBER working paper
Manski, Charles F., (1993) ``Identication of Endogenous Social Effect: The Reflection Problem,'' Review of Economics Studies 60, 531-542. Link
Topa, Giorgio, “Social Interactions, Local Spillovers and Unemployment,” ReStud, April 2001.
Brock and Durlauf, “Discrete Choice with Social Interactions,” Restud, April 2001
Ljungqvist, Lars ; Sargent, Thomas J., “The European Unemployment Dilemma” Journal of Political Economy v106, n3 (June 1998): 514-50.
Casselli, Francesco and Wilbur John Coleman II, “The U.S. Structural Transformation and Regional Convergence: A Reintrepretation,” JPE, Vol 109, No. 3.
Holmes, Thomas “The Effects of State Policies on the Location of Industry, JPE, 1998.