Gordon Dahl Winter 2011 Department of Economics Economics 250B UC San Diego Labor Economics READING LIST This course covers policy-related issues in the labor market with a focus on linking theory and evidence. The course will emphasize the empirical methods widely used in modern labor economics. The reading list below is too long to be read in its entirety, and we will have to pick and choose which topics to cover. Hence, I will let you know which papers you should read in advance. A * next to the citation indicates that I am more likely to assign the paper as required reading. A. Brief Overview of the Returns to Human Capital Card, David. The Causal Effect of Education on Earnings, in O. Ashenfelter and D. Card, Handbook of Labor Economics, vol. 3, North-Holland. Card, David. Earnings, Schooling, and Ability Revisited. Research in Labor Economics 14 (1995), pp. 23-48. *Card, David, Estimating the Return to Schooling: Progress on Some Persistent Econometric Problems, Econometrica, Vol. 69, No. 5 (September 2001): 1127-60. Mincer, Jacob. Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, Columbia University Press. Willis, Robert. Wage Determinants: A Survey and Reinterpretation of Human Capital Earnings Functions, in Ashenfelter, Orley and Layard, Richard, eds., Handbook of Labor Economics, Vol. 1, Ch. 10, North-Holland, 1986. Card, David and Thomas Lemieux, Can Falling Supply Explain the Rising Return to College for Younger Men? A Cohort-Based Analysis, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 116, No. 2 (May 2001): 705-46. Oreopoulos, Philip. Estimating Average and Local Average Treatment Effects of Education When Compulsory Schooling Laws Really Matter, American Economic Review, Vol. 96, No. 1 (March 2006), pp. 152-175. B. Migration and Immigration *Borjas, G. Assimilation, Changes in Cohort Quality, and the Earnings of Immigrants, Journal of Labor Economics 3 (1985) 463-489. Borjas, G. Assimilation and Cohort Quality Revisited: What Happened to Immigrant Earnings in the 1980s? Journal of Labor Economics 13 (April 1995) 201-245. *Dahl, Gordon, Mobility and the Return to Education: Testing a Roy Model with Multiple Markets, Econometrica, Vol. 70, No. 6, November 2002. Borjas, Self-Selection and the Earnings of Immigrants, American Economic Review, Vol. 77, No. 4 (September 1987), pp. 531-553. *Peri, Giovanni and Chad Sparber, Task Specialization, Immigration and Wages, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2009. Card, D. The Impact of the Mariel Boatlift on the Miami Labor Market, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 1990, pp. 245-257. *Kugler, Adriana and Mutlu Yuksel, Effects of Low-Skilled Immigration on U.S. Natives: Evidence 1
from Hurricane Mitch, IZA Discussion Paper, 2008. Card, David. How Immigration Affects U.S. Cities, CReAM Discussion Paper, 2007. Card, David, Immigrant Inflows, Native Outflows, and the Local Labor Market Impacts of Higher Immigration, Journal of Labor Economics, Vol. 19, No. 1, January 2001. C. Social Program Evaluation 1. Welfare Participation *Ashenfelter, Orley. Determining Participation in Income-Tested Social Programs. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 1983, pp. 517-525. *Plant, M. (1984), An Empirical Analysis of Welfare Dependency, American Economic Review, 74, 673-684. Card, David, and Philip Robbins. Do Financial Incentives Encourage Welfare Recipients to Work? Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation of the Self-Sufficiency Project. Research in Labor Economics, 1998. Melkersson, M. and J. Saarela, Welfare Participation and Welfare Dependence among the Unemployed, Journal of Population Economics, Vol. 17, No. 3 (August 2004): 409:431. 2. Training Programs *Ashenfelter, O. and D. Card. Using the longitudinal structure of earnings to estimate the effect of training programs. Review of Economics and Statistics, 67, 1985. *Card, D. and D. Sullivan. Measuring the effect of subsidized training programs on movements in and out of unemployment. Econometrica, 56, May 1988. Lechner, M. and Conny Wunsch, Are Training Programs More Effective When Unemployment is High? Journal of Labor Economics, Vol. 27, No. 4 (October 2009): 653-92. Greenberg, D., C. Michalopoulos, and P. Robins, A Meta-Analysis of Government-Sponsored Training Programs, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 57, No. 1, October 2003. Heckman, J. and J. Hotz. Choosing among alternative nonexperimental methods for estimating the impact of social programs: The case of manpower training. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 84, December 1989. LaLonde, R. Evaluating the Econometric Evaluations of Training Programs with Experimental Data, American Economic Review, Vol. 76, No. 4 (September 1986), pp. 604-620. Heckman, James, Ichimura Hidehiko, and Petra Todd, Matching as an Econometric Evaluation Estimator: Evidence from Evaluating a Job Training Program, Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 64. No. 4 (October 1997): 605-54. 3. Teenage Pregnancy and Marriage *Hotz, V. Joseph, Charles H. Mullin, and Seth G. Sanders, 1997. Bounding Causal Effects Using Data from a Contaminated Natural Experiment: Analysing the Effects of Teenage Childbearing, Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 64, pp. 575-603. Heckman, James, 1995. Instrumental Variables: A Cautionary Tale, NBER Technical Working Paper, No. 185. 2
Klepinger, Daniel, Shelly Lundberg, and Robert Plotnick, 1999. How Does Adolescent Fertility Affect the Human Capital and Wages of Young Women?, Journal of Human Resources, Vol. 34, No. 3 (Summer 1999), 421-448. Dahl, Gordon, 2010. Early Teen Marriage and Future Poverty, Demography, Vol. 47, No. 3, pp. 689-718. 4. The Minimum Wage Brown, Charles, Minimum wage laws: Are they overrated? Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1988, 2(3), 133-145. Card, D. Do Minimum Wages Reduce Unemployment?: A Case Study of California, 1987-1989, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, October 1992, 46(1), 22-37. *Card, D. and A. Krueger. Myth and Measurement. Princeton University Press, 1995. See especially chapters 6, 7, and 9. *Card, David and Alan Krueger, "Minimum Wages and Employment: A Case Study of the Fast Food Industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania" American Economic Review 84, 772-93. Neumark, David and William Wascher. Employment Effects of Minimum and Subminimum Wages: Panel Data on State Minimum Wage Laws, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, October 1992, 46 (1), 55-80. Lee, David, Wage Inequality in the United States during the 1980s: Rising Dispersion or Falling Minimum Wage? Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 114, No. 3 (August 1999): 977-1023. D. Selected Theories of Wage Determination 1. Incomplete Information about Worker Quality: Signaling and Learning *A. M. Spence, Job Market Signaling, Quarterly Journal of Economics, August 1973, pp. 355-74. *R. Gibbons and L. Katz, Layoffs and Lemons, Journal of Labor Economics 9 (1991): pp. 351-80. Greenwald, B. Adverse Selection in the Labor Market, Review of Economic Studies, 53 (1986), 325-347. Lang, K. and D. Kropp, Human Capital and Sorting: The Effects of Compulsory Attendance Laws, Quarterly Journal of Economics, August 1986, pp. 609-624. 2. Compensating Wage Differentials *Rosen, S. The Theory of Equalizing Differences, in Ashenfelter, Orley and Layard, Richard, eds., Handbook of Labor Economics, Vol. 1, Ch. 12, North-Holland, 1986. Smith, A. The Wealth of Nations, Chapter 10. Brown, C. Equalizing Differences in the Labor Market, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 94:1 (February, 1980), pp. 113-134. *Roback, Jennifer. 1982. "Wages, Rents, and the Quality of Life." Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 90, pp. 1257-1278. *Abowd, John and Orley Ashenfelter. Temporary Layoffs, Anticipated Unemployment, and Compensating Wage Differentials in Sherwin Rosen, Studies in Labor Markets, University of Chicago Press, 1981. 3
*Ham, J. and K. Reilly, Testing Intertemporal Substitution, Implicit Contracts and Hours Restriction Models of the Labor Market Using Micro Data, American Economic Review 92 (September 2002) 905-927. 3. Efficiency Wages and Industry Wage Differentials Krueger, A. and L. Summers, Efficiency Wages and the Inter-Industry Wage Structure. Econometrica 56 (March 1988): 259-294. *Gibbons, R. and L. Katz. Does Unmeasured Ability Explain Inter-Industry Wage Differences? Review of Economic Studies 59 (1992): pp. 515-535. Bils, Mark, and Kenneth McLaughlin. Inter-Industry Mobility and the Cyclical Upgrading of Labor, Journal of Labor Economics, Vol. 19, No. 1 (January 2001): pp. 94-135. E. Unemployment *Meyer, B.D. Unemployment Insurance and Unemployment Spells, Econometrica, Vol. 58 (1990): pp. 757-782. *Anderson, P. Linear Adjustment Costs and Seasonal Labor Demand: Evidence from Retail Trade Firms, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 108 (November 1993) 1015-1042. Card, D. and P.B. Levine Extended Benefits and the Duration of UI Spells: Evidence from the New Jersey Extended Benefit Program, Journal of Public Economics, Vol. 78 (2000): 107-138. Shapiro, C. and J. Stiglitz, Equilibrium Unemployment as a Worker Incentive Device, American Economic Review, 74 (1984), 433-444. Carmichael, L. Can Unemployment be Voluntary? Comment, American Economic Review 75 (December 1985) 251-258. F. Unions and Arbitration 1. Unions *Freeman, R. Longitudinal Analyses of the Effects of Trade Unions, Journal of Labor Economics (1984), Vol.2, No. 1, pp. 1-26. Farber, H. The Decline of Unionization in the United States: What Can Be Learned from Recent Experience. Journal of Labor Economics, 8:S75-S105, January 1990. McCurdy, Thomas and John Pencavel. Testing the Efficiency of Employment Contracts. Journal of Political Economy, 94:S3-S39, 1986. *Card, David. The Effect of Unions on the Structure of Wages: A Longitudinal Analysis, Econometrica 64 (July 1996): 957-979. Robinson, Chris. The Joint Determination of Union Status and Union Wage Effects: Some Tests of Alternative Models. Journal of Political Economy, 97:639-667, June 1989. 2. Arbitration Farber, H. and H. Katz, Interest Arbitration, Outcomes, and the Incentive to Bargain, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Oct. 1979, 55-63. Farber, H. An Analysis of Final Offer Arbitration, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Dec. 1980, 683-705. 4
Ashenfelter, O. J. Currie, H. Farber, and M. Spiegel. An Experimental Comparison of Dispute Rates in Alternative Arbitration Systems, Econometrica, November 1992, pp. 1407-1434. *Dahl, Gordon and Orley Ashenfelter, Bargaining and the Role of Expert Agents: An Empirical Study of Final Offer Arbitration, Review of Economics and Statistics, forthcoming. Ashenfelter, Orley and David Bloom, Models of Arbitrator Behavior: Theory and Evidence, American Economic Review, March 1984, 111-124. 5