Emily C.
Schaeffer, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Economics

San Jose State University

Labor Economics, Fall 2009
Labor Economics 151 in an applied microeconomics course, focusing on understanding labor institutions and markets.  Students will learn to apply the economic way of thinking to analyze labor market regulation, unions, collective bargaining, discrimination, immigration, and specific issues relating to minorities in labor markets.  This class uses economic models, assumptions, and methods to analyze how labor markets operate – focusing on the roles of employees, employers, firms, and government regulators
Course Materials

The following include readings and other course materials assigned in class.  The required readings are listed under the date assigned.  Readings with a (*) indicate recommended material that we may reference in class, but is not mandatory for the exams.


Hazlett - Chapter 1

Frédéric Bastiat: A Petition

J.R. Hicks (1932) The Theory of Wages: Marginal Productivity and the Demand for Labour

*F.A. Hayek (1945) The Use of Knowledge in Society
, American Economic Review, vol.35, no.4, pp. 519-530.

Overview of Labor Market

The Demand for Labor

*Labor Demand Elasticities

R.A. Radford (1945) "The Economic Organization of a P.O.W. Camp," Economica, vol. 12, pp. 189-201.

*Hans F. Sennholz (1984) The Underground Economy



*Lee E. Ohanian (2009) "What - or Who - Started the Great Depression?" Under Review at Journal of Economic Theory

Google BLS Unemployment Rate Tool


Labor Supply and Wage Determination
(The sections on bargaining are not required readings.)

Hazlitt - Chapter 10 The Fetish of Full Employment

Hazlitt - Chapter 18 Minimum Wage Laws

Thomas C. Leonard (2005) Eugenics and Economics in the Progressive Era Journal of Economic Perspectives 19(4): 207-224.

Review Symposium Myth and Measurement: The New Economics of the Minimum Wage
(1995) Industrial & Labor Relations Review (48)4:827-849.  (Only the review written by Daniel Hamermesh is required.)

Hilda Solis Article

Thomas Sowell - The Application of Economics

Thomas Sowell - Job Markets


Thomas Sowell - The Economics of Discrimination


Midterm Article on Minimum Wage

Benjamin Powell
and David Skarbek (2006) "Sweatshop Wages and Third-World Living Standards: Are the Jobs Worth the Sweat?" Journal of Labor Research 27, (2): 263-274.

*Benjamin Powell (2006) "A Reply to Sweatshop Sophistries" Human Rights Quarterly 28: 1031-1042.

Thomas Sowell - The Economics of Slavery

John E. Moes - The Economics of Slavery in the Ante Bellum South: Another Comment

Diana Furchtgott-Roth - Union Bigs Get The Best Deals: A Sour Labor Day Lesson on Pensions
Hazlitt - Do Unions Really Raise Wages?

Hazlitt - The Curse of the Machinery
Hazlitt - Spread the Work Schemes


Markets with Asymmetric Information & Signaling: The Contributions of Akerlof, Spence, & Stiglitz (2002)

Courtship as a Waiting Game

Education Signaling (Section 13.2: pgs. 6-9)

*Job Market Signaling - Michael Spence (1973)



Daron Acemolgu (2001) - The Consequences of Employment Protection: The Case of the Americans with Disabilities Act

Morris Kliener - Occupational Licensing Introduction and Overview

*Occupational Licensing Scant Treatment in Textbooks


Rachel M. Friedberg and Jennifer Hunt (1995)
The Impact of Immigrants on Host Country Wages, Employment and Growth, Journal of Economic Perspectives 9(2): 23-44

Open Letter on Immigration by Alexander Tabarrock and David Theroux (2006)

The Pseudo Economic Problem of Immigration by Ben Powell (2005)