Course Title: Labour Economics

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Labour Economics

Credit Points: 12

Course Code	Campus	Career	School	Learning Mode	Teaching Period(s)
ECON1047	City Campus	Undergraduate	625H Economics, Finance & Marketing	Face-to-Face

Course Coordinator: Dr Wang-Sheng Lee

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925 5861

Course Coordinator Email:wangsheng.lee@rmit.edu.au

Course Coordinator Location: 108.12

Course Coordinator Availability: By Appointment

Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

ECON1048 - Price Theory

It is assumed that students have a good grasp of microeconomics, in particular of the concept of the elasticities of demand and supply

Course Description

Labour Economics studies how labour markets work. This course will consider the roles of three key participants in labour markets: workers, firms and government in order to understand basic principles such as labour supply and demand. We will also consider a selection of topics in labour economics such as hiring decisions, compensation, educating and training workers, motivating workers through incentives, firing decisions, and discrimination. Throughout the module, we attempt to integrate theoretical issues and empirical evidence.

Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

Students should acquire a firm knowledge of basic mechanisms of the labour market. Students should learn to use analytical models of behaviour and interactions in the labour market as tools to analyse the mechanisms that determine outcomes in the labour market, the performance of labour markets, and to analyse policy questions related to labour markets. The students should also become familiar with key elements of empirical work that aims at evaluating and quantify the mechanisms of the models.

The key generic capabilities that students will develop are an ability to:

• Identify appropriate economic models to analyse problems
• Select and apply appropriate techniques to solve problems
• Justify conclusions using economic arguments with appropriate rigour
• Discuss how decisions and recommendations based on sound economic reasoning can be made.

By the end of the module students will:

• Have developed skills in combining theoretical models and data to address issues in the context of the labour market.
• Have acquired an understanding of the application of economic principles and econometric evidence to a variety of microeconomic labour market issues
• Be able to discuss what strategies employers use as well as how employees should respond to them

Overview of Learning Activities

Learning activities are the tasks and exercises which assist students in making meaning from the content of a course. Commonly used activities in this course include:

• Note making (from lectures, or print materials such as journal articles)
• Group discussions and review questions

Overview of Learning Resources

There will be a prescribed text (details to be given in the first lecture), other listed references and library resources. Additional materials for classes and for revision purposes will be provided on the Learning Hub.

Overview of Assessment

Assessment will be through a combination of term papers and a final exam.