Contemporary labor economics

Cover
Contemporary Labor Economics
About the Authors
Preface
Acknowledgments
Contents
Chapter 1: Labor Economics: Introduction and Overview
	Labor Economics as a Discipline
	The “Old” and the “New”
	Economic Perspective
	World of Work 1.1: Gary Becker: Nobel Laureate
	Overview
	Payoffs
Chapter 2: The Theory of Individual Labor Supply
	The Work–Leisure Decision: Basic Model
	World of Work 2.1: Work Hours Linked to Pollution
	World of Work 2.2: Labor Supply of Politicians
	Applying and Extending the Model
	World of Work 2.3: The Labor Supply Effects of Winning a Lottery Prize
	World of Work 2.4: Labor Supply of Florida Lobster Fishermen
	World of Work 2.5: The Labor Supply Impact of the Earned Income Tax Credit
Chapter 3: Population, Participation Rates, and Hours of Work
	The Population Base
	Becker’s Model: The Allocation of Time
	World of Work 3.1: The Changing Face of America
	World of Work 3.2: Video Gaming and the Decline in Labor Supply of Young Men
	Participation Rates: Defined and Measured
	Secular Trend of Participation Rates
	World of Work 3.3: The Power of the Pill
	World of Work 3.4: Why Do So Few Women Work in New York and So Many in Minneapolis?
	World of Work 3.5: The Opioid Crisis and the Decline in Labor Force Participation
	Cyclic Changes in Participation Rates
	Hours of Work: Two Trends
	World of Work 3.6: Time Stress
Chapter 4: Labor Quality: Investing in Human Capital
	Investment in Human Capital: Concept and Data
	The Human Capital Model
	World of Work 4.1: Recessions and the College Enrollment Rate
	World of Work 4.2: What Is a GED Worth?
	World of Work 4.3: Higher Education: Making the Right Choices
	Human Capital Investment and the Distribution of Earnings
	World of Work 4.4: What You Did in High School Matters
	World of Work 4.5: Reversal of the College Gender Gap
	On-the-Job Training
	Criticisms of Human Capital Theory
	World of Work 4.6: College as Country Club
	World of Work 4.7: Is There More to College than Money?
Chapter 5: The Demand for Labor
	Derived Demand for Labor
	A Firm’s Short-Run Production Function
	Short-Run Demand for Labor: The Perfectly Competitive Seller
	Short-Run Demand for Labor: The Imperfectly Competitive Seller
	The Long-Run Demand for Labor
	World of Work 5.1: Has Health Care Reform Increased Involuntary Part-Time Work?
	The Market Demand for Labor
	World of Work 5.2: Why Has Manufacturing Employment Fallen?
	World of Work 5.3: Comparative Advantage and the Demand for Labor
	Elasticity of Labor Demand
	Determinants of Demand for Labor
	World of Work 5.4: Ahead of the Pack: Veterinary Occupations are Growing Fast
	Real-World Applications
	World of Work 5.5: Occupational Employment Trends
	Appendix: Isoquant–Isocost Analysis of the Long-Run Demand for Labor
	Isoquant Curves
	Isocost Curves
	Least-Cost Combination of Capital and Labor
	Deriving the Long-Run Labor Demand Curve
Chapter 6: Wage Determination and the Allocation of Labor
	Theory of a Perfectly Competitive Labor Market
	World of Work 6.1: Hurricanes and Local Labor Markets
	World of Work 6.2: China Syndrome
	Wage and Employment Determination: Monopoly in the Product Market
	Monopsony
	World of Work 6.3: Pay and Performance in Professional Baseball
	Wage Determination: Delayed Supply Responses
	World of Work 6.4: Do Medical Students Know How Much Doctors Earn?
Chapter 7: Alternative Pay Schemes and Labor Efficiency
	Economics of Fringe Benefits
	Theory of Optimal Fringe Benefits
	World of Work 7.1: [Job] Locked and [Un]Loaded
	The Principal–Agent Problem
	Pay for Performance
	World of Work 7.2: End of Teacher Tenure?
	World of Work 7.3: Economics of Tipping
	Efficiency Wage Payments
	World of Work 7.4: The Ford Motor Company’s $5 per Day Wage
	Labor Market Efficiency Revisited
Chapter 8: The Wage Structure
	Perfect Competition: Homogeneous Workers and Jobs
	The Wage Structure: Observed Differentials
	Wage Differentials: Heterogeneous Jobs
	World of Work 8.1: Who Cares and Does It Matter?
	Wage Differentials: Heterogeneous Workers
	World of Work 8.2: Rising Importance of Social Skills
	The Hedonic Theory of Wages
	World of Work 8.3: Is Exercise Good for Your Wallet as Well as Your Heart?
	World of Work 8.4: Compensating Pay for Shift Work
	World of Work 8.5: Placing a Value on Human Life
	Wage Differentials: Labor Market Imperfections
Chapter 9: Mobility, Migration, and Efficiency
	Types of Labor Mobility
	Migration as an Investment in Human Capital
	World of Work 9.1: The Decline in Geographic Mobility
	The Determinants of Migration: A Closer Look
	The Consequences of Migration
	Capital and Product Flows
	U.S. Immigration Policy and Issues
	World of Work 9.2: Labor Supply of Undocumented Immigrants
	World of Work 9.3: What Jobs Do Undocumented Persons Hold?
Chapter 10: Labor Unions and Collective Bargaining
	Why Unions?
	Labor Unionism: Facts and Figures
	World of Work 10.1: Janus Decision and Public Sector Unions
	Unionism’s Decline
	What Do Unions Want?
	Unions and Wage Determination
	World of Work 10.2: The WTO, Trade Liberalization, and Labor Standards
	Strikes and the Bargaining Process
Chapter 11: The Economic Impact of Unions
	The Union Wage Advantage
	World of Work 11.1: The Cost of a Union Member
	Efficiency and Productivity
	World of Work 11.2: Labor Strife and Product Quality
	Firm Profitability
	World of Work 11.3: Unions and Investment
	Distribution of Earnings
	Other Issues: Inflation, Unemployment, and Income Shares
	World of Work 11.4: Unions and Executive Compensation
Chapter 12: Government and the Labor Market: Employment, Expenditures, and Taxation
	Public Sector Employment and Wages
	World of Work 12.1: What Do Government Workers Do?
	World of Work 12.2: Beaches, Sunshine, and Public Sector Pay
	The Military Sector: The Draft versus the Voluntary Army
	World of Work 12.3: The Impact of Military Cutbacks on Civilians
	Nonpayroll Spending by Government: Impact on Labor
	Labor Market Effects of Publicly Provided Goods and Services
	Income Taxation and the Labor Market
	World of Work 12.4: Who Pays the Social Security Payroll Tax?
Chapter 13: Government and the Labor Market: Legislation and Regulation
	Labor Law
	Minimum Wage Law
	Occupational Health and Safety Regulation
	World of Work 13.1: Climate Change and Occupational Health
	World of Work 13.2: The Effect of Workers’ Compensation on Job Safety
	Government as a Rent Provider
	World of Work 13.3: Who Can Whiten Teeth?
Chapter 14: Labor Market Discrimination
	Gender and Racial Differences
	World of Work 14.1: The Gender Wage Gap among Millennials
	Discrimination and Its Dimensions
	Taste for Discrimination Model
	World of Work 14.2: Competition and Discrimination
	Theory of Statistical Discrimination
	The Crowding Model: Occupational Segregation
	World of Work 14.3: Does Ban the Box Cause Discrimination?
	World of Work 14.4: Evolution of a Family Friendly Occupation
	Cause and Effect: Nondiscriminatory Factors
	World of Work 14.5: The Gender Gap in the Gig Economy
	Antidiscrimination Policies and Issues
	World of Work 14.6: Orchestrating Impartiality
Chapter 15: Job Search: External and Internal
	External Job Search
	World of Work 15.1: Thinking of Quitting? The Boss Knows
	Internal Labor Markets
Chapter 16: The Distribution of Personal Earnings
	Describing the Distribution of Earnings
	Explaining the Distribution of Earnings
	Mobility within the Earnings Distribution
	World of Work 16.1: Cross-Country Differences in Earnings Mobility across Generations
	World of Work 16.2: Government Employment and the Earnings Distribution
	Rising Earnings Inequality
	World of Work 16.3: Rising Leisure Time Inequality
Chapter 17: Labor Productivity: Wages, Prices, and Employment
	The Productivity Concept
	Importance of Productivity Increases
	World of Work 17.1: Growing Gap Between Productivity and Compensation
	Long-Run Trend of Labor Productivity
	World of Work 17.2: Is Public Capital Productive?
	Cyclic Changes in Productivity
	Productivity and Employment
	A “New Economy” or Not?
Chapter 18: Employment and Unemployment
	Employment and Unemployment Statistics
	World of Work 18.1: Effects of Graduating from College in a Bad Economy
	Macroeconomic Output and Employment Determination
	Frictional Unemployment
	Structural Unemployment
	Demand–Deficient Unemployment
	World of Work 18.2: Why Bad Unemployment News Is Usually Good for Stocks
	The Distribution of Unemployment
	Reducing Unemployment: Public Policies
Appendix: Information Sources in Labor Economics
	Sources of Labor Statistics
	Applications, New Theories, Emerging Evidence
	Textbooks and Research Surveys
Glossary
Answers to “Your Turn” Questions
Name Index
Subject Index
Data Tables