Contemporary labor economics

Description

Contemporary Labor Economics, 9e presents the “new” labor economics in a readable and logical fashion. The authors' focus in this edition is clearly on labor economics as an applied field of micro and macro theory. This volume is based on the assumption that labor economics is no longer an area tangential to the core of analytical economics but rather a critical component of that core. However, since traditional topics such as labor law, structure of unions, and collective bargaining also play an important role in labor markets, they are also presented. In the Ninth Edition, the authors deliver new and updated discussions of public policy issues and expanded and updated coverage of the current economic crisis. Title Contents 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 World of Work 1.2: Lotto Winners: Who Quit Payoffs 2. The Theory of Individual Labor Supply The Work–Leisure Decision: Basic Model World of Work 2.1: Work Hours Linked to Mother Nature Applying and Extending the Model World of Work 2.2: The Carnegie Conjecture World of Work 2.3: More Flexible Work Schedules World of Work 2.4: New Overtime Rules World of Work 2.5: The Labor Supply Impact of the Earned Income Tax Credit 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 Participation Rates: Defined and Measured Secular Trend of Participation Rates World of Work 3.2: Fewer Teens Have Summer Jobs World of Work 3.3: Wives and Later Retirement among Married Men World of Work 3.4: Many Wives Outearn Their Husbands World of Work 3.5: The Power of the Pill World of Work 3.6: Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 Cyclic Changes in Participation Rates Hours of Work: Two Trends World of Work 3.7: Time Stress 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: Reversal of the College Gender Gap On-the-Job Training Criticisms of Human Capital Theory World of Work 4.5: How Much Is a Standardized Test Point Worth? 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: Why Has Manufacturing Employment Fallen? The Market Demand for Labor World of Work 5.2: Comparative Advantage and the Demand for Labor Elasticity of Labor Demand Determinants of Demand for Labor World of Work 5.3: Offshore Outsourcing of White-Collar Jobs Real-World Applications World of Work 5.4: 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 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: Always Hiring 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? World of Work 6.5: NAFTA and American Labor 7. Alternative Pay Schemes and Labor Efficiency Economics of Fringe Benefits Theory of Optimal Fringe Benefits World of Work 7.1: Does Health Insurance Cause “Job Lock”? The Principal–Agent Problem Pay for Performance World of Work 7.2: Why Is There Academic Tenure? World of Work 7.3: Economics of Tipping World of Work 7.4: Bankers Face Strict New Pay Cap Efficiency Wage Payments World of Work 7.5: The Ford Motor Company’s $5 per Day Wage Labor Market Efficiency Revisited 8. The Wage Structure Perfect Competition: Homogeneous Workers and Jobs The Wage Structure: Observed Differentials Wage Differentials: Heterogeneous Jobs World of Work 8.1: The Economics of the Oldest Profession World of Work 8.2: Wage Inequality and Skill-Biased Technological Change World of Work 8.3: Is Bigger Still Better? Wage Differentials: Heterogeneous Workers World of Work 8.4: Do Former College Athletes Earn More Than Nonathletes? The Hedonic Theory of Wages World of Work 8.5: Compensating Pay for Shift Work World of Work 8.6: Placing a Value on Human Life Wage Differentials: Labor Market Imperfections 9. Mobility, Migration, and Efficiency Types of Labor Mobility Migration as an Investment in Human Capital World of Work 9.1: Determinants of Occupational Tenure 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: Human Trafficking World of Work 9.3: What Jobs Do Illegal Aliens Hold? 10. Labor Unions and Collective Bargaining Why Unions? Labor Unionism: Facts and Figures World of Work 10.1: A Divorce in the Union Movement Unionism’s Decline World of Work 10.2: Should the Right to Hire Permanent Strikebreakers Be Rescinded? World of Work 10.3: Will the Employee Free Choice Act Help Revive Unions? What Do Unions Want? Unions and Wage Determination World of Work 10.4: The WTO, Trade Liberalization, and Labor Standards World of Work 10.5: Has Deunionization Increased Earnings Inequality? Strikes and the Bargaining Process 11. The Economic Impact of Unions The Union Wage Advantage World of Work 11.1: A Tale of Two Industries World of Work 11.2: Autoworker Union Concessions Efficiency and Productivity World of Work 11.3: Labor Strife and Product Quality Firm Profitability World of Work 11.4: Unions and Investment Distribution of Earnings Other Issues: Inflation, Unemployment, and Income Shares 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: Public Sector Unions: Are They Unique? The Military Sector: The Draft versus the Voluntary Army 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 12.3: Who Pays the Social Security Payroll Tax? 13. Government and the Labor Market: Legislation and Regulation Labor Law Minimum Wage Law World of Work 13.1: Living Wage Laws Occupational Health and Safety Regulation World of Work 13.2: The Effect of Workers’ Compensation on Job Safety Government as a Rent Provider World of Work 13.3: The Prevalence and Effects of Occupational Licensing 14. Labor Market Discrimination Gender and Racial Differences World of Work 14.1: The Gender Pay Gap: An International Comparison Discrimination and Its Dimensions World of Work 14.2: It Pays to Be Good-Looking Taste for Discrimination Model World of Work 14.3: September 11 and Discrimination against Muslims and Arabs World of Work 14.4: Competition and Discrimination Theory of Statistical Discrimination The Crowding Model: Occupational Segregation World of Work 14.5: Women’s Entry into Selected Professions Cause and Effect: Nondiscriminatory Factors World of Work 14.6: The Gender Pay Gap: Slowing Convergence Antidiscrimination Policies and Issues World of Work 14.7: Orchestrating Impartiality 15. Job Search: External and Internal External Job Search World of Work 15.1: Job Search and the Internet Internal Labor Markets World of Work 15.2: Are Long-Term Jobs Vanishing? 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 17. Labor Productivity: Wages, Prices, and Employment The Productivity Concept Importance of Productivity Increases Long-Run Trend of Labor Productivity World of Work 17.1: Is Public Capital Productive? Cyclic Changes in Productivity Productivity and Employment A “New Economy”? 18. Employment and Unemployment Employment and Unemployment Statistics World of Work 18.1: New Data on Job Gains and Losses Macroeconomic Output and Employment Determination Frictional Unemployment Structural Unemployment World of Work 18.2: Outsourcing Terminations Demand-Deficient Unemployment World of Work 18.3: 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