Understanding
the role of labor market institutions is a difficult but key task. Good
institutions can alleviate the adverse effects of the many imperfections that
characterize labor markets. But, unfortunately, bad institutions can, and often
do, make things worse. The course will examine a range of institutions that
affect the behavior of workers and employers in imperfect labor markets, and
thus touch upon a number of important issues in labor economics, e.g., minimum
wages, employment protection legislation, unemployment benefits, active labor
market policies, collective bargaining, and employment-conditional incentives.
In order to characterize the effects of these institutions, the course relies
on easy theory and reviews corresponding evidence.