ECO 405: Labor Economics

Monday - Wednesday - Friday 10:20am - 11:20am
Crounse 301

Office Hours (417 Crounse):
M-W 2:00pm - 4:30pm
F 2:00pm - 3:00pm
Tues 11:30am - 1:00pm
or just stop by

Important Dates:
Monday, 9/26 - Project topics due to me
Friday, 9/30 - Must have completed first project meeting with me
Wednesday, 10/12 - MIDTERM EXAM
Friday, 11/18 - Last day to submit drafts and elicit comments
Friday, 12/9 - Projects due
Tuesday, 12/13 - FINAL EXAM (8:30am - 11:30am in Crounse 301)

Syllabus (pdf)

• Companion website for Ehrenberg and Smith
• Centre College Career Services
• Check out the Blog of one of the most famous labor economists to grace this planet \
• Employment statistics from the Current Population Survey

Course News and Announcements (click here for Labor News and Current Events)

• Monday, December 12th
  Data for final exam question
  
  
• Monday, December 5th
  Slides for Class
  
  
• Friday, November 11th
  Slides for Class
  
  
• Remember that there is NO CLASS on Friday, October 14th.
  
  
• Friday, October 7th
  The tricky problem of sticky wages - how to rebuild New Orleans ... by Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution
  
  
• Thursday, September 28th
  Note that the midterm exam will take place on Wednesday, October 12th. There will be NO CLASS on Friday, October 14th. More details about the exam will be discussed in class.
  
  
• Tuesday, September 27th
  Be sure to find a time to meet with me to discuss how to get your projects started!
  
  
• Thursday, September 8th
  1) Since I am not assigning a problem set this weekend, you might want to spend time refamiliarizing yourselves with your basic econometrics materials. To that end, please read the Appendix to Chapter 1 in the text. You should also consider logging onto the web page for the text (link is above) and do the Econometric Exercise for Chapter 1. I will alert you when to do further exercises and these will be very useful to you in preparing for your semester projects.
  
  2) For those that want to do practice questions, I recommend the review problems from Chapter 1 (#1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7) and the from Chapter 2 (#2, 5, 7, 8 and 10). #8 appeared on an old exam of mine.
  
  
  
• Wednesday, August 10th
  Textbooks are now available for purchase in the campus bookstore. The text is Modern Labor Economics (9th edition) by Ehrenberg and Smith. New copies can be purchased for the low price of $136.50 while used copies are available for $102.50.
  
  You can also find new paperback international editions at Half.com for anywhere between $89.00 and $105.00 and new at Amazon for $129.20 or used (it's a brand new edition, so I don't see how this is likely) for $104.00.

Labor News and Current Events

• Thursday, November 3rd
  Don Boudreaux on "How Rich We'd Be if Every American Bought a New Car Weekly"
  
  
• Tuesday, November 1st
  

  Should Government Subsidize Child Care and Work Leaves?
  
  

• Saturday, October 1st
  Here is a good paper from the Employment Policy Institute on the effects of minimum wages
  
  
• Tuesday, September 27th
  Health-Care Costs for Colleges and Their Employees Rose by 10% From 2004 to 2005, Survey Finds ... read more
  
  
• Wednesday, September 14th
  Here is an explanation for why the data on stagnant real wages may be misleading. We have to live somewhere!
  
  
• Tuesday, September 13th
  Check out this take on what has happened to job growth since 2000.
  
  
• Wednesday, September 8th
  Are white collar workers having difficulty finding jobs?
  
  A poorly written, but interesting article on the returns to a college degree.
  
  
• Tuesday, September 6th
  Barbara Ehrenrich shows us how NOT to look for a job
  
  
• Monday, September 5th
  More "brilliant" schemes to help workers ... read Don Boudreaux's brilliant take
  
  
• Tuesday, August 30th
  Sweating to death? What are the economics?