Labor Economics II OpenCourseWare: MIT's Free Advanced Grad-Level Class on Labor Economics

Published Mar 11, 2009

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Find out what goes into determining wage and salary rates in today's labor market with this free OpenCourseWare in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 'Labor Economics II' OpenCourseWare teaches students about models of employer behavior, including how firms observe and record productivity and how this information affects their choices. This course is a continuation from Labor Economics I, also available as MIT OpenCourseWare, but students are not required to have taken the previous class to understand or benefit from this one.

Labor Economics II: Course Specifics

Degree Level Free Audio Video Downloads
Graduate Yes No No Yes

Lectures/Notes Study Materials Tests/Quizzes
Yes Yes No

Labor Economics II: Course Description

Economists study and predict activity in the labor market by constructing mathematical models of worker and employer behavior. This OpenCourseWare from MIT in Cambridge helps students understand these models. Professors Michael Piore and Jorn-Steffen Pischke taught graduate students about formulas that can be used to determine outcomes of scenarios in the labor economy. Some formulas can measure the impact of technological change on productivity, while others can be used to calculate the perceived productivity of a workforce versus its actual output. The influence of imperfect information on the behavior of firms and workers is a recurring theme in the course and is examined in a lecture on agency theory. This class can be beneficial to students studying for a master's degree in economics, particularly those focusing on econometrics.

Lecture notes, recitation notes, a readings list and problem sets with solutions are available free online. To learn more about this class, visit the labor economics course page.

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