Determination of Wages
Instructor: Derek Neal (University of Chicago)
This course will explore the models that economists use to understand how the careers of workers evolve over their life-cycles. Modern panel data provides detailed information about how earnings, hours-worked, and job assignments evolve as workers age. Further, economists use many different models to try to understand these patterns. This course will explore these various models while constantly revisiting empirical work on life-cycle patterns and engaging students in discussions about the relative merits of various models as vehicles for understanding data.
DAY 1: Human Capital
Ben Porath (1967), Becker and Tomes (1980), Neal and Rosen (2000)
DAY 2: Learning & Signaling
Gibbons, Katz, LeMeiux, and Parent (2005), Gibbons and Waldman (1998), Altonji and Pierret (2001), Clark and Martorell (2012)
DAY 3: Matching and Assignment
Jovanovic (1979), Miller (1984), Neal (1999), and Gittins (1979)
DAY 4: Matching and Human Capital
Neal (1995), Neal (1998), Robinson and Polatev (2008) and Pavan (2011)
DAY 5: Agency Models
Lazear and Rosen (1981), Holmstrom (1982), Baker, Gibbons, and Murphy (1992), and Barlvey and Neal (2012)
Derek Neal is a Professor in the Department of Economics and the Committee on Education at the University of Chicago. Professor Nealʼs current research focuses on the design of incentive systems for educators. His work explores the design flaws in current performance pay and accountability systems and also highlights the advantages of providing incentives through contests between schools.
Earlier in his career, his research focused on the causes and consequences of measured skill gaps between blacks and whites in the United States. He has also written a number of papers on the specificity of worker skills and the implications of the idea that workers possess many skills that are neither completely general or entirely specific to one firm but rather specific to a career.
He is a past President of the Midwest Economics Association, a Fellow of the Society of Labor Economists, former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Labor Economics and an current editor of the Journal of Political Economy.
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