Syllabus

Lecture 1: Overview

Lecture 2: Minimum Wages

Lecture 3: Unions and Collective Bargaining

Lecture 4: Payroll Taxes

Lecture 5: Regulating Working Hours

Lecture 6: Retirement Programs

Lecture 7: Family Policies

Lecture 8: Education and Training

Lecture 9: Migration Policies

Presentations:

• Ghazala, Naz, 2004. "The impact of cash-benefit reform on parents' labour force participation,", Journal of Population Economics 17:369-383.

Will be presented by Franziska Zeiner on May 20th, 2009.

• The theory of Human Capital:
  • Boeri, Tito and van Ours, Jan, 2008. "The Economics of Imperfect Labor Markets,", Princeton University Press, chapter 8.2 (including technical annex 8.8).
  • Borjas, George, 2008. "Labor Economics,", McGraw-Hill, chapter 7.

Will be presented by Zhiheng Png on May 27th, 2009.

• Card, David, 1990. "The Impact of the Mariel Boatlift on the Miami Labor Market,", Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 2, No. 2. (nice summary)
  

Will be presented by Claeyman Léonie on June 3rd, 2009.

• Saint-Paul, Gilles, 2004. "The European brain drain: European workers living in the US," VOX.

Will be presented by Seungpyo Hong on June 3rd, 2009.

Miscellaneous:

• A good introduction to Cobb-Douglas functions.