8104 - LABOUR ECONOMICS

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Course Objectives
The purpose of the course is to provide the basic analytical tools allowing students to understand the operation of markets in which labour services are exchanged for wages.   

Course Content Summary

The course is structured in four parts.
The first part of the course is on labour supply.  After recalling the neoclassical theory of labour supply, the course introduces the job search framework, which is used as an integrated framework in the remainder of the course.
The second part of the course covers labour demand.  It discusses the tradeoffs between labour and capital, skilled and unskilled labour as well as between hours and workers. 
The third part is on labour market equilibrium, notably on wage formation.  Students start by characterising atomistic bilateral monopoly conditions in which firms and workers individually bargain over wages and then move on to collective bargaining structures and models of unions.
The fourth and last part of the course is on applications of the above framework to study specific issues, such as migration, human capital investment and labour market policies.

Textbooks

• P. CAHUC,  A. ZYLBERBERG, Labor Economics, MIT Press, 2004.
• O.J. BLANCHARD, J. WOLFERS  The Role of Shocks and Institutions in the Rise of European Unemployment: The Aggregate Evidence, in Economic Journal 110(462):  C1-33.
• G. BERTOLA, T. BOERI, EMU Labour Markets Two Years On: Microeconomic Tensions and Institutional Evolution, in M. BUTI, A. SAPIR, (eds.) EMU and Economic Policy in Europe, Edward Elgar, 2002. 
• Additional readings will be provided at the beginning of the course.    

Detailed Description of Assessment Methods

The exam is written. 

Attending students
For students attending the course, there will be a 1^st partial exam covering Parts I and II.  The mark of the 1^st partial  is valid only until the first exam period of the summer session (2^nd partial exam). 
Students taking the exam afterwards will have to cover the entire program (general exam).