syllabus

ECON 3470

Labor Economics

1^st Term, 2022-2023

Lecture Hours and Location:

Mon 4:30pm - 6:15pm (M09-10); ELB LT3
Wed 11:30am - 12:15pm (W04); YIA LT9

Instructor:

YUNG Chor-Wing Linda

Office:	ELB 1010
Phone:	3943-8192
E-mail:	cwyung186@cuhk.edu.hk
Office Hours:	Walk in or by appointment

Teaching Assistant:

XU Wei

Office:	ELB 1017
Phone:	3943-8202
E-mail:	weixu@link.cuhk.edu.hk
Office Hours:	TBC or by appointment

Course Objective:

The objective of the course is to provide the basic concepts of Labor Economics and examine both theoretical and empirical issues of the labor market. In other words, the course aims to help students understand

the labor market model through the derived demand of firms and labor supply of households
the comparative static properties of perfectly competitive and imperfect product and labor markets
the policy implications of the empirical findings

Course Description:
This course emphasizes both theoretical and empirical studies. Topics covered include: static and dynamic models of the demand for labor, allocation of time, the labor supply of men and women, human capital theory, theories of personal income distribution, information and search theory, signaling and self-selection, implicit contracts and the principal-agent problem.

Prerequisite:
Students should have knowledge of basic microeconomic theory, multi-variable calculus and introductory Econometrics before taking this course.

Recommended Textbooks:

Ehrenberg, Ronald G., Robert S. Smith and Kevin F Hallock (2023) Modern Labor Economics: Theory and Public Policy. 14^th Edition. Routledge. [ESH]

Borjas, George (2016) Labor Economics. 7^th Edition. McGraw-Hill. [GB]

Course Assessment Scheme:

Written Assignments	20%
Computer Exercise	15%
Mid-term	30%
Final	35%

Course Activities:

Tutorials

Tentatively, tutorials will be held after the fourth week of class. It will go through some of the tutorial questions, some difficult assignment problems.

Written Assignments

There will be 2 assignments throughout the course. All assignments are equally weighted. Each assignment will be posted on Blackboard one week prior to due date. Please note that no late assignments will be graded.

Computer Exercise

There will be a couple of computer exercises to get you familarized with STATA and the Hong Kong Census data regarding Hong Kong Labor market situation..

Mid- term (17^th October, 2022, 4:30pm - 6:15pm, ELB LT3)

Please note carefully the date, time and venue of the mid-term; there will be no makeup exam. This is not negotiable. If you miss the mid-term, due to a documented illness or emergency, and have received my approval your final exam score will receive the weight of the mid-term in addition to its own weight.

Final (time and date will be announced later)

Final will be arranged by the University, please observe the date and venue. The University has very strict regulations on how the final exam works. So please make sure you can make it. If by then centeralized exam is not feasible, an online exam will be conducted.

For exchange students, please note that early departure is NOT a valid reason for not taking the final examination at the time scheduled by the University.

Course Content and Tentative Schedule:

Week	Topic	Contents	Readings
1	Introduction	Introduction and overview.	[ESH] Ch. 1 and 2. [GB] Ch. 1.
2-3	Labor Demand	Derived demand for labor.	[ESH] Ch. 3 and 4. [GB] Ch. 3 and 4.
4	Fixed Cost	Quasi-fixed costs, fixed factors and fixed costs.	[ESH] Ch. 5. [GB] Ch. 2.
5-6	Labor Supply	The basic model and intertemporal model. Male and female labor supply.	[ESH] Ch. 6 and 7. [GB] Ch. 2.
7		Mid-term
8	Compensating Wage Differentials	Hedonic wage theory and risk.	[ESH] Ch. 8. [GB] Ch. 5.
9	Human Capital	Education and training.	[ESH] Ch. 9. [GB] Ch. 6.
10	Discrimination, Gender Wage Gap and Inequality	Earnings differentials from gender, race and occupation.	[ESH] Ch. 12 and 15. [GB] Ch. 7 and 9.
11	Principal Agent Problem	Wage contract and incentive scheme	[ESH] Ch.11 [GB] Ch. 11
12	Unemployment	Different sources of unemployments.	[ESH] Ch. 14. [GB] Ch. 12.
13 If time allows	Labor Mobility	Geographic mobility, immigration, employee turnover.	[ESH] Ch. 10. [GB] Ch. 8.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the course the students should be:

familiar with the terminology and basic facts related to the labor market
able to understand and explain key features of various labor markets
capable to evaluate the findings of empirical work
able to assess the policy implication of various labor policies.

Grade Descriptors:

Grade	Descriptions
A / A-	Outstanding/Generally outstanding performance on all learning outcomes.
B+ / B / B-	Substantial performance on all learning outcomes, OR high performance on some learning outcomes which compensates for less satisfactory performance on others, resulting in overall substantial performance.
C+ / C / C-	Satisfactory performance on the majority of learning outcomes, possibly with a few weaknesses
D+ / D	Barely satisfactory performance on a number of learning outcomes
F	Unsatisfactory performance on a number of learning outcomes, OR failure to meet specified assessment requirements.

Note:

Course notes and announcements will be posted on the class Blackboard (https://blackboard.cuhk.edu.hk/ultra/stream) Please check frequently.

Attention is drawn to University policy and regulations on honesty in academic work, and to the disciplinary guidelines and procedures applicable to breaches of such policy and regulations. Details may be found at http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/Eng_htm_files_(2013-14)/index_page2.htm .

With each assignment, students will be required to submit a signed declaration that they are aware of these policies, regulations, guidelines and procedures. For group projects, all students of the same group should be asked to sign on the declaration.
For assignments in the form of a computer-generated document that is principally text-based and submitted via the plagiarism detection engine VeriGuide, the statement, in the form of a receipt, will be issued by the system upon students’ uploading of the soft copy of the assignment. Assignments without the receipt will not be graded by teachers. Only the final version of the assignment should be submitted via VeriGuide.