The Economics of Labor

The branch of economics concerned with the allocation of resources in the labor market addresses some of the most difficult issues facing governments and policy-makers at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The range of dizzying questions it seeks to answer include:

• what is the impact of immigration on the wage and employment opportunities of native-born workers?
• are government subsidies of investments in human capital an effective way to improve the economic well-being of disadvantaged workers?
• what factors determine the distribution of wages?
• what is the economic impact of trade unions?
• why did the labor-force participation of women rise steadily throughout the past century in many industrialized countries?

In addition to its policy relevance, labor economics has played an important role in the development of modern economics as a whole. Because of the widespread availability of data on labor-market outcomes, labor economists have developed a number of econometric methods that have profoundly influenced the profession. The diffusion of these methods to other fields within economics (and to other social sciences) has radically changed how social scientists analyse and interpret data.

This new title from Routledge meets the need for an authoritative reference work to make sense of the subject’s vast literature and the continuing explosion in research. Edited by George J. Borjas, the pre-eminent scholar in the field, The Economics of Labor is a four-volume collection of classic and contemporary contributions.

The first volume is dedicated to the basic models of labor supply and labor demand. Volume II, meanwhile, focuses on studies of labor-market equilibrium, including the theory of compensating differentials. The third and fourth volumes bring together a number of related topics, including labor-market discrimination, labor-market unions, migration, theories of incentives and compensation, and unemployment. Together, the four volumes provide a one-stop resource for all interested researchers, teachers, and students to gain a thorough understanding of the roots of labor economics and its future direction.

With a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, The Economics of Labor is destined to be valued by all economists, as well as by other social scientists working in related areas, as an essential work of reference.

Edited and with a new introduction by George J. Borjas, Harvard University