Contemporary Labor Economics / Edition 9

by Campbell McConnell, Stanley Brue, David Macpherson

Overview

Contemporary Labor Economics, 9e presents the “new” labor economics in a readable and logical fashion. The authors' focus in this edition is clearly on labor economics as an applied field of micro and macro theory. This volume is based on the assumption that labor economics is no longer an area tangential to the core of analytical economics but rather a critical component of that core. However, since traditional topics such as labor law, structure of unions, and collective bargaining also play an important role in labor markets, they are also presented. In the Ninth Edition, the authors deliver new and updated discussions of public policy issues and expanded and updated coverage of the current economic crisis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780073375953
Publisher:	McGraw-Hill Higher Education
Publication date:	09/08/2009
Edition description:	Older Edition
Pages:	640
Product dimensions:	7.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Campbell R. McConnell earned his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa after receiving degrees from Cornell College and the University of Illinois. He taught at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln from 1953 until his retirement in 1990. He is also coauthor of Contemporary Labor Economics, Seventh edition, and Essentials of Economics, First edition (both The McGraw-Hill Companies), and has edited readers for the principles and labor economics courses. He is a recipient of both the University of Nebraska Distinguished Teaching Award and the James A. Lake Academic Freedom Award, and is past-president of the Midwest Economics Association. Professor McConnell was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Cornell College in 1973 and received its Distinguished Achievement Award in 1994.

Stanley L. Brue did his undergraduate work at Augustana College (South Dakota) and received its Distinguished Achievement Award in 1991. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. He is a professor at Pacific Lutheran University, where he has been honored as a recipient of the Burlington Northern Faculty Achievement Award. Professor Brue has also received the national Leavey Award for excellence in economic education. He has served as national president and chair of the Board of Trustees of Omicron Delta Epsilon International Economics Honorary. He is coauthor of Economic Scenes, Fifth edition (Prentice-Hall), Contemporary Labor Economics, Seventh edition, Essentials of Economics, First edition (both The McGraw-Hill Companies), and The Evolution of Economic Thought, Seventh edition (South-Western).

Table of Contents

Preface     iv
Labor Economics: Introduction and Overview     1
Labor Economics as a Discipline     1
The "Old" and the "New"     3
Economic Perspective     4
Gary Becker: Nobel Laureate     6
Overview     6
Lotto Winners: Who Quit?     10
Payoffs     11
The Theory of Individual Labor Supply     14
The Work-Leisure Decision: Basic Model     14
Sleep Time Linked to Earnings     30
Applying and Extending the Model     31
The Carnegie Conjecture     35
More Flexible Work Schedules     37
New Overtime Rules     38
The Labor Supply Impact of the Earned Income Tax Credit     46
Population, Participation Rates, and Hours of Work     52
The Population Base     53
Becker's Model: The Allocation of Time     54
The Changing Face of America     55
Participation Rates: Defined and Measured     59
Secular Trend of Participation Rates     60
Fewer Teens Have Summer Jobs     61
The Later Male Retirement Puzzle     65
Many Wives Outearn Their Husbands     67
The Power of the Pill     70
Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993     74
Cyclic Changes in Participation Rates     76
Hours of Work: Two Trends     78
Time Stress     80
Labor Quality: Investing in Human Capital     85
Investment in Human Capital: Concept and Data     86
The Human Capital Model     87
Recessions and the College Enrollment Rate     95
Twins, Education, and Earnings     97
Higher Education: Making the Right Choices     101
Human Capital Investment and the Distribution of Earnings     104
Reversal of the College Gender Gap     110
On-the-Job Training     112
Criticisms of Human Capital Theory     119
How Much Is a Standardized Test Point Worth?     123
The Demand for Labor     128
Derived Demand for Labor     128
A Firm's Short-Run Production Function     129
Short-Run Demand for Labor: The Perfectly Competitive Seller     134
Short-Run Demand for Labor: The Imperfectly Competitive Seller     136
The Long-Run Demand for Labor     139
Why Has Manufacturing Employment Fallen?     143
The Market Demand for Labor     143
Comparative Advantage and the Demand for Labor     146
Elasticity of Labor Demand     146
Determinants of Demand for Labor     152
Offshore Outsourcing of White-Collar Jobs     156
Real-World Applications     156
Occupational Employment Trends     158
Isoquant-Isocost Analysis of the Long-Run Demand for Labor     164
Isoquant Curves     164
Isocost Curves     166
Least-Cost Combination of Capital and Labor     167
Deriving the Long-Run Labor Demand Curve     168
Wage Determination and the Allocation of Labor     171
Theory of a Perfectly Competitive Labor Market     171
The Fall and Rebound of Real Earnings, 1979-2006     177
Wage and Employment Determination: Monopoly in the Product Market     181
Monopsony     183
Unions and Wage Determination     187
Pay and Performance in Professional Baseball     188
The WTO, Trade Liberalization, and Labor Standards     191
Has Deunionization Increased Earnings Inequality?     197
Bilateral Monopoly     198
NAFTA and American Labor     201
Wage Determination: Delayed Supply Responses     201
Do Medical Students Know How Much Doctors Earn?      204
Alternative Pay Schemes and Labor Efficiency     210
Economics of Fringe Benefits     210
Theory of Optimal Fringe Benefits     213
Does Health Insurance Cause "Job Lock"?     219
The Principal-Agent Problem     220
Pay for Performance     221
Why Is There Academic Tenure?     223
Participant Direction in Pension Plans     229
Efficiency Wage Payments     232
What Is a Good CEO Worth?     233
The Ford Motor Company's {dollar}5 per Day Wage     236
Labor Market Efficiency Revisited     238
The Wage Structure     243
Perfect Competition: Homogeneous Workers and Jobs     243
The Wage Structure: Observed Differentials     244
Wage Differentials: Heterogeneous Jobs     247
The Economics of the Oldest Profession     250
Wage Inequality and Skill-Biased Technological Change     254
Smoking Is Bad for Your Financial Health     256
Wage Differentials: Heterogeneous Workers     256
Do Former College Athletes Earn More Than Nonathletes?     259
The Hedonic Theory of Wages     260
Compensating Pay for Shift Work     264
Placing a Value on Human Life      266
Wage Differentials: Labor Market Imperfections     266
Mobility, Migration, and Efficiency     275
Types of Labor Mobility     275
Migration as an Investment in Human Capital     277
Determinants of Occupational Tenure     278
The Determinants of Migration: A Closer Look     279
The Consequences of Migration     283
Capital and Product Flows     293
U.S. Immigration Policy and Issues     295
Human Trafficking     297
What Jobs Do Illegal Aliens Hold?     301
Labor Unions and Collective Bargaining     305
Why Unions?     305
Labor Unionism: Facts and Figures     306
A Divorce in the Union Movement     312
Unionism's Decline     315
Should the Right to Hire Permanent Strikebreakers Be Rescinded?     319
Will the Internet Help Revive Unions?     323
What Do Unions Want?     324
Strikes and the Bargaining Process     328
The Economic Impact of Unions     335
The Union Wage Advantage     335
A Tale of Two Industries     343
The Highest-Paid Blue-Collar Workers     344
Efficiency and Productivity      346
Labor Strife and Product Quality     351
Unions and Investment     357
Firm Profitability     357
Distribution of Earnings     359
Other Issues: Inflation, Unemployment, and Income Shares     363
Government and the Labor Market: Employment, Expenditures, and Taxation     368
Public Sector Employment and Wages     369
What Do Government Workers Do?     371
Public Sector Unions: Are They Unique?     374
The Military Sector: The Draft versus the Voluntary Army     375
Nonpayroll Spending by Government: Impact on Labor     378
Private Military Companies     379
Labor Market Effects of Publicly Provided Goods and Services     381
Income Taxation and the Labor Market     384
Who Pays the Social Security Payroll Tax?     391
Government and the Labor Market: Legislation and Regulation     394
Labor Law     394
Minimum Wage Law     399
Living Wage Laws     405
Occupational Health and Safety Regulation     407
The Effect of Workers' Compensation on Job Safety     415
Government as a Rent Provider     416
Lawyers Attempt to Disbar Competition from Software     420
Labor Market Discrimination     425
Gender and Racial Differences     425
The Gender Pay Gap: An International Comparison     427
Discrimination and Its Dimensions     432
It Pays to Be Good-Looking     434
Taste for Discrimination Model     435
Competition and Discrimination     439
Theory of Statistical Discrimination     440
The Crowding Model: Occupational Segregation     442
Women's Entry into Selected Professions     448
Cause and Effect: Nondiscriminatory Factors     449
The Gender Pay Gap: Slowing Convergence     453
Antidiscrimination Policies and Issues     454
Orchestrating Impartiality     457
Job Search: External and Internal     463
External Job Search     464
Job Search and the Internet     466
Internal Labor Markets     471
Are Long-Term Jobs Vanishing?     472
The Distribution of Personal Earnings     483
Describing the Distribution of Earnings     483
Explaining the Distribution of Earnings     489
Mobility within the Earnings Distribution     497
Cross-Country Differences in Earnings Mobility Across Generations      498
Government Employment and the Earnings Distribution     499
Rising Earnings Inequality     500
Labor Productivity: Wages, Prices, and Employment     508
The Productivity Concept     508
Importance of Productivity Increases     512
Long-Run Trend of Labor Productivity     516
Is Public Capital Productive?     519
Cyclic Changes in Productivity     521
Productivity and Employment     524
A "New Economy"?     530
Employment and Unemployment     536
Employment and Unemployment Statistics     536
New Data on Job Gains and Losses     543
Macroeconomic Output and Employment Determination     545
Frictional Unemployment     547
Structural Unemployment     549
Downsizing and College Graduates     551
The Danish Flexicurity Model     552
Demand-Deficient Unemployment     553
The Distribution of Unemployment     556
Reducing Unemployment: Public Policies     559
Information Sources in Labor Economics     565
Sources of Labor Statistics     565
Applications, New Theories, Emerging Evidence     573
Textbooks and Research Surveys      579
Glossary     581
Answers to "Your Turn" Questions     596
Name Index     600
Subject Index     607