Vorlesung Seminar Labor Economics

Understanding the role of labor market institutions is a difficult but central task. Good institutions can alleviate the adverse effects of the many imperfections that characterize labor markets. But, unfortunately, bad institutions can, and often do, make things worse. The course will examine the many institutions that affect the behavior of workers and employers in imperfect labor markets, and thus touch upon a number of important issues in labor economics: minimum wages, employment protection legislation, unemployment benefits, active labor market policies, collective bargaining, early retirement programs, education and migration policies, payroll taxes, and employment-conditional incentives. In order to accurately characterize the effects of these institutions, the course relies on simple yet state-of-the-art theory and and provides empirical reviews of evidence. The course consists of two elements, a series of eight lectures, and a block seminar taking place close to the end of the winter term. Lectures will take place on: Oct 26, Nov 2, Nov 9, Nov 16, Nov 30, Dec 7, Jan 11 & Jan 18. The block seminar is scheduled for Feb 3, 2017 2-6 pm, and Feb 4, 2017, 9 am - 6 pm. Each participant is required to give a seminar presentation (usually in a group of 2-3) and prepare a term paper (individually!) of 12 pages in the maximum. In order to successfully pass the course, you will need to obtain a mark of 4.0 or better for the presentation and the term paper. The mark for the presentation enters into the final grade with a weight of one third, that of the term paper with a weight of two thirds. The seminar topics (including a core paper, which is compulsory reading, as a starting point for your literature search) will be distributed via moodle following the first lecture. The individual seminar topics will address the labor market institutions and interventions covered during the lecture (see schedule below), focusing on impact assessment of particular conditions and settings in a range of OECD countries. You are asked to send a message to bonin@iza.org by November 7, 2016, 23:59, in order to express your interest in taking the seminar. This message should provide me with your three preferred topics, in descending order. Your message should of course also contain your name, and your student ID. Seminar topics will be assigned by November 9, 2016. When allocating the seminar topics, I will try to respect your preferences as far as possible. But it still may happen that you will be eventually assigned to a topic that is not among your three most preferred topics. You need to register participation in the course via HIS. You may deregister from the course until Nov 30, 2016, 23:59. If you deregister later, do not take part in the seminar, or do not submit a seminar paper, the course will be marked as failed. The lecture will draw on selected chapters of the following book. I strongly recommend buying - and reading - it: Tito Boeri and Jan van Ours (2013), The Economics of Imperfect Labor Markets, 2nd ed., Princeton University Press.   Voraussetzungen While the course is self-contained, a good understanding of micro economics will be taken for granted. The course will also cover some empirical studies, in particular in the seminar part. Therefore, a basic understanding of econometrics will be useful, yet it is not a necessary condition for succesful completion of the course. FB 07 Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre While the course is self-contained, a good understanding of micro economics will be taken for granted. The course will also cover some empirical studies, in particular in the seminar part. Therefore, a basic understanding of econometrics will be useful, yet it is not a necessary condition for succesful completion of the course. Uni Kassel WiSe 2016/17 Lehrveranstaltungspool FB 07 Prof. Dr. Bonin Holger