Credits: 6

Schedule: 26.02.2019 - 09.04.2019

Teacher in charge (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

Kristiina Huttunen

Contact information for the course (applies in this implementation): Instructor: Kristiina Huttunen
Email: kristiina.huttunen@aalto.fi
Office: VATT, Economicum, Arkasiankatu 7
Office hours: by request
Instructor’s Webpage: https://sites.google.com/site/krhuttunen/


Teaching Period (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

IV Spring (2018-2019), Otaniemi campus

IV Spring (2019-2020), Otaniemi campus

Learning Outcomes (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

The students understand main theories of labor markets and can use them to analyze new situations. Furthermore, they understand and can implement the main empirical approaches used for testing and quantifying theoretical models.

Content (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

The course provides an introduction to the microeconomics of the labor markets. Particular emphasis is given to the interaction of theoretical and empirical modeling. The topics include labor supply, labor demand, wage formation, welfare programs, immigration, minimum wages, human capital, worker turnover and discrimination.

Details on the course content (applies in this implementation): 

This course provides an overview of the
modern microeconomic approaches that economists use to analyze the labor
markets. We will emphasize the interplay between theory and empirics and cover
topics such as labor supply, labor demand, immigration, minimum wages,,
technological change, inequality, human capital, education and discrimination.


Assessment Methods and Criteria (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

Exercises: 30% of the final marking
Exam: 70% of the final marking
To pass the course, each of these parts must be passed with at least a grade 1.

Spring 2020 exam will be changed to home exam.

Spring 2020 re-take exam will be replaced by an independent project.

Elaboration of the evaluation criteria and methods, and acquainting students with the evaluation (applies in this implementation): 

There will be four graded problem sets
and a final exam. 30% of the final grade will be based on the performance in
these problem sets and the final exam will account for the remaining 70%. To
pass the course, you should pass both the problem sets and the exam. 


Workload (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

  • Lectures 24h
  • Exercises 12h
  • Preparing for lectures and exam 96h
  • Preparing for exercises 24h
  • Exam 4h

Spring 2020 exam will be changed to home exam.

Spring 2020 re-take exam will be replaced by an independent project.

Details on calculating the workload (applies in this implementation): 

Lecture 12 sessions (24h)

Exercises 4 sessions +two optional 

Study Material (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

Borjas, George J.  Labor Economics (6th ed)  (2013)
Availability

Other readings assigned during the course.

Details on the course materials (applies in this implementation): 

Many of the topics that will be discussed in
the course are addressed in the following textbook:

·        
Borjas, George J., Labor
Economics, 8th edition, McGraw-Hill, 2020  (previous editions are also suitable)



In addition to that, in each lecture we might also discuss particular
academic papers, which will be listed on the course website. In each chapter,
required readings are marked with an asterisk. 
I ask you to read some of the articles before lecture/exercise sessions.
Furthermore, you can also find in the reading list a number of references which
are meant to be additional reading for an interested student. During the
lectures we will also cover briefly some articles outside of the reading list.
In this case, you are expected to learn about them only to the extent discussed
in the lecture handouts.

Course Homepage (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

https://mycourses.aalto.fi/course/search.php?search=31E00700

Prerequisites (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

Two of the advanced Microeconomics courses (31E11000, 31E11100, 31E12000, 31E12100, 31E99906 and 31E13000) and Empirical Methods for Economists (31C01200, 31C99904, 30C00200 or 30C00500).

Grading Scale (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

0-5

Registration for Courses (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020): 

Course and exam via WebOodi.

Additional information for the course (applies in this implementation): 

More information, such as updated reading list and schedule, will be on course website.

Details on the schedule (applies in this implementation): 

Session

Date

Topic

Assignment Due Date

       1

Feb 25, 10:15

Introduction, Facts and Figures

 

2

Feb 27, 10:15

Static Labor Supply

 

3

Feb  28, 10:15

Re-cap of empirical methods for causal
inference (optional)

 

4

March 3, 10:15

Inter-temporal Labor Supply

A1 distributed

5

March 5, 10:15

Labor Supply: Applications

 

6

March 6, 10:15

Help with Stata (optional)

 

7

March 10, 10:15

Labor Demand

Deadline A1, Tuesday 23:59

A2 distributed

8

March 12, 10:15

Labor Market Equilibrium

 

9

March 13, 10:15

Discussion of Assignment 1

 

10

March 17, 10:15

Labor Market Equilibrium: Migration,
Imperfectly Competitive Labor Market

Deadline A2,
Tuesday 23:59

A3 distributed

11

March 19, 10:15

Skilled-Biased Technical Change,
Polarization

 

12

March 20, 10:15

Discussion of Assignment 2

 

16

March 24, 10:15

Human capital (education)

Deadline A3, Tuesday 23:59

A4 Distributed

17

March 26, 10:15

Human capital (education)

 

18

March 27, 10:15

Discussion of Assignment 3

 

19

 March 31, 10:15

Discrimation, Gender differences,

Deadline A4, Tuesday 23:59

20

April 2, 10:15

Wrap up

 

21

April 3, 10:15

Discussion of Assignment 4

 

 

 

 

 

Exam

April 7, 9:00

Tuesday, 7 April, 09:00 » 13:00

U2 / U157, Otakaari 1


Description

Registration and further information