Literature and instructions for Labour Economics, Spring 2016
Instructor: Katarina Katz, email: [email protected], Office 11 C269,
Telephone 054-700 20 18 or 0734 42 40 36.
Content:
A. The course literature includes ............................................................................................. 1
B. Reading instructions: .......................................................................................................... 1
C. Individual Assignments ...................................................................................................... 2
D. How to find the texts included in the Readings: ................................................................. 2
You will find a preliminary plan of lectures is included in the schedule on “Time Edit”.
Please note that that the schedule may be modified during the course.
A. The course literature includes
1. Agell, Jonas: On the Benefits from Rigid Labour Markets: Norms, Market Failures,
and Social Insurance, Economic Journal, 109, (February), 1999, pp. F143-F164
2. Borjas, George Labour Economics, 6th Edition, McGraw Hill, chapters 1-9 and 12
3. Aldén, Lina and Mats Hammarstedt: Integration of immigrants on the Swedish labour
market – recent trends and explanations. Linnaeus University Labour Market and
Discrimination Studies, 2014:9
4. Calmfors, Lars, Forslund Anders and Maria Hemström: Does active labour market policy
work? Lessons from the Swedish experiences. IFAU Working Paper 2002:4, pages 5-16
5. Freeman, Richard B.: Labour Market Institutions Without Blinders: The Debate over
Flexibility and Labour Market Performance, International Economic Journal 19:2, June
2005, pages 129-145
6. Holmlund, Bertil: What do labor market institutions do? Working Paper 2013:23, Dept.
of Economics, Uppsala University
7. Katz, Katarina: “Introduction to Labour Economics.” Posted on the course web page.
8. Yellen, Janet, L.: Efficiency Wage Models of Unemployment. American Economic
Review, vol. 74:2 (May 1984), pp. 200-205
9. Lecture notes
You will find items 1 and 3-8 in the folder “Course Literature”. Lecture slides will be
available in the folder Slides and Handouts before each lecture.
B. Reading instructions:
1. All the texts listed above are part of the curriculum and may come up in examinations.
(But of course, only the pages and sections indicated in the list.)
2. You are not required to learn the details of the statistics reported by Borjas and in the
lecture notes but you should understand and remember the main trends and
conclusions reported. The empirical parts in Borjas refer mostly to the US. In many
cases the lecture notes report the corresponding facts about Sweden or the EU. You
may choose whether you want to focus on the US data or the Swedish/European. For
instance, if in an exam you are asked about the main trends in labour supply in recent
years, you can either describe the US or the Swedish case.
3. Some sections of Borjas chapter 1-9 & 12 can be omitted. You will find the details
on the first page of each set of lecture notes.
Please note: The lecture notes include material that is not covered in Borjas but is part of the
readings for the course. They will be posted on it’s learning, at the latest a day in advance.
C. Individual Assignments
1. Each student will be required to read an individually chosen research paper or
article/s. The student should choose an area within labour economics and then the
instructor will propose a suitable text or texts. You are welcome to suggest a text
yourself but the decision must be made in consultation with the instructor. These
texts could be articles in academic journals, working papers or reports from research
institutes or universities and amount to approximately 20-50 pages, depending on the
difficulty. Selection of texts should be done at the latest by February 23th.
2. A written summary and reflection of about 2-3 pages should be handed in no later
than March 11th.
3. The student should give a verbal presentation in class (approximately 10 minutes)
during the student seminars on March 22nd and 23rd. Please note that attendance at
one seminar is compulsory. If you are unable to attend due to illness or other
compelling reasons, contact the instructor beforehand. A second opportunity for
presenting will be offered, preliminary date April 13th. (Attendance at other classes is
voluntary.) You will also be assigned papers by two other students and should have at
least some question to ask in the seminar discussion.
D. If you have a problem downloading the Readings from it’s
learning you can get them:
Agell, Freeman and Yellen: To get access to Economic Journal, International Economic
Journal and American Economic Review articles in full text, you need to go through the
Karlstad University Library. Search under “journals” or through the databases Econlit, Jstor
or with Google Scholar.
Aldén and Hammarstedt at http://lnu.se/polopoly_fs/1.107538!/LMDSWP20149_mall.pdf
Calmfors et al. can be downloaded from the IFAU web-page at
http://www.ifau.se/sv/Forskning/Publikationer/Working-papers/2002/Does-active-labourmarket-policy-work-Lessons-from-the-Swedish-experiences/
Holmlund: Can be downloaded from the webpage of the Department of Economics,
University of Uppsala or directly at
http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:668186/FULLTEXT01.pdf