Last update: PhDr. Martina Mysíková, Ph.D. (15.01.2024)
The course provides an introduction to the theory and practice of contemporary labour economics. The primary focus is on developing and understanding of the determinants of wage rates and employment levels in labour markets. Aggregated indicators related to labour, labour markets, and wages are considered, including labour force participation, evolution and change in labour markets, employment, and unemployment. Factors of wage determination and the theories explaining wage differentials are elaborated. In this course, the analytical tools are used to examine such policy issues as: minimum wage laws, economic impact of trade unions, active labour market policies, labour market discrimination.
Literature
Last update: FLEK (16.02.2018)
Compulsory:
CARLIN, Wendy, and SOSKICE, David. Macroeconomics and the Wage Bargain. 1st printing, 1990. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-877-245-9.
FLEK, Vladislav (ed.). Anatomy of the Czech Labour Market: From Over-Employment to Under- Employment in Ten Years? 1st printing, 2007. Prague: Karolinum Press. ISBN 978-80-246-1316-1. Available also in a working paper version at: http://www.cnb.cz/en/vyz_cnb_working_paper_series.php
Suggested:
BOERI, Tito, and van OURS, J. The Economics of Imperfect Labor Markets. 2nd printing, 2013. Princeton, Princeton University Press. ISBN: 9780691158938
FLEK, Vladislav, and MYSÍKOVÁ, Martina. "Unemployment Rate Dynamics in Central Europe: A Labour Flow Approach." 2015. Prague Economic Papers, No. 1. Available also in a working paper version at: http://ies.fsv.cuni.cz/sci/publication/show/id/4586/lang/cs
Syllabus
Last update: FLEK (16.02.2018)
Course Outline:
Labour Market Macroeconomics - Imperfect competition and micro foundations of modern labour market macroeconomics - Wage and price inflation: a macro model based on behavioural and institutional micro foundations - Equilibrium unemployment and the NAIRU in the light of competing claims theory - Empirical issues (measuring the NAIRU, discussing results for Europe, Czech Republic and the US) Labour Market Microeconomics - Efficiency wages theory - Wage bargaining with trade unions controlling the supply of labour (trade union monopoly model) - Wage and employment bargaining as cooperative game between firms and unions (efficient bargains model)
- Labour market distortions in the absence of trade unions (efficiency wages model) - Empirical issues (union wage differentials and other sources of non-competitive wage premia)
Structural Issues - Education and wages, returns to education - Labour mobility and flows, steady-state unemployment rate - The nature of unemployment: voluntary or involuntary? - Regional unemployment elasticity of wages (the wage curve)
