Memo for incoming M1 students interested in labor economics research
Prepared by Andrew S. Griffen
This memo provides some requirements and recommendations for incoming master’s degree students in the Graduate School of Economics at the University of Tokyo who are interested in being advised on empirical or labor related topics by any of following professors: Kawaguchi, Yamaguchi, Tanaka, Kawada, Kondo, Griffen, or Son.
First, we require you to take either Labor Economics I (Prof. Kondo, S1) or Empirical Microeconomics (Prof. Griffen, A1A2) in your first year or the first half of your second year. The purpose of these courses is to introduce students to basic techniques in data analysis using R or Stata and to introduce students to the basic research designs for causal inference that are used extensively in empirical microeconomics research. Likely your thesis will analyze data using a method that you learn about in these classes. From our perspective, it is very difficult to advise students who have not taken these basic courses, which is why we want to have some uniformity of requirements. In terms of difficulty, Professor Kondo’s course is probably slightly easier than Professor Griffen’s course so students should consider selecting into each course based on their initial ability. However, both are perfectly manageable.
Second, we recommend that you take additional courses according to your area of interest. There are many interesting courses offered including topics courses in labor; Labor Economics II (Prof. Kawaguchi), Economics of the Family (Prof. Yamaguchi), Economics of Education (Prof. Tanaka), and Empirical Market Design (Prof. Son) as well as methodological courses; Machine Learning Methods for Empirical Economics (Prof. Kawata), R for Empirical Economics Research (Prof. Griffen) Applied Econometrics (Prof. Son), and Discrete Choice Models (Prof. Son)[1].
In addition, if you have not taken any labor economics courses at the undergraduate level, please take the undergraduate level Labor Economics I and II (taught in Japanese). If you do not speak
Japanese, you should read one of the following textbooks on your own.
George Borjas, “Labor Economics,” McGraw-Hill
Ehrenberg, Ronald and Robert, Smith, “Modern Labor Economics,” Routledge.
Finally, students should consider attending the Microeconomics seminars on Tuesdays 10:30 - 12:00 as well as Empirical Micro seminars, which is occasionally held on Monday 10:30-12:00. The seminar series is excellent and gets lots of great speakers. It’s really useful to see research being presented and can help you develop ideas for your own research. You can find a schedule on the CIRJE website http://www.cirje.e.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ where you can incorporate the CIRJE calendar into your personal google calendar. It is also possible to get added to the mailing list for a particular seminar series by contacting CIRJE directly.
[1] Applied Econometrics and Discrete Choice Models taught by Prof. Son teach similar materials – please refer to their syllabi.
労働経済学を学びたい修士1年生へ
東京大学経済学研究科において、以下の教員の指導を希望する学生に履修を義務付ける科目、ないし推奨する科目を説明します。
川口教授、山口教授、田中教授、川田准教授、近藤教授、Griffen准教授、Son講師
履修を義務付ける科目
Labor Economics I (近藤, S1) または Empirical Microeconomics (Griffen, A1A2)のいずれかを、遅くとも2年時の前半までに履修すること。これらの科目の目的は、因果推論の基本と、RやSTATAを用いた計量分析の方法論を学ぶことです。労働経済学分野の実証分析で修士論文を書くにはこれらの知識は必須であり、これらの知識を欠いた学生の修士論文の指導は困難です。
なお、Labor Economics Iのほうがやや難易度が低く、時間数が少ないためカバーする内容も少なくなっています。Empirical MicroeconomicsではLabor Economics Iでカバーできないトピックも扱うため、特に研究者志望の学生にはこれら３科目すべてを履修することを勧めます。順序としては、Labor Economics Iの後にEmpirical Microeconomicsを履修するのが良いでしょう。
また、学部レベルの労働経済学の知識が不足している場合には、学部との共通科目である労働経済I(山口、A1)、労働経済II（山口、A2）を履修するか、以下の教科書などで独学してください。
l 川口大司（2017）、「労働経済学」、有斐閣
l George Borjas (2023), “Labor Economics,” 9th edition, McGraw-Hill
l Ehrenberg, Ronald and Robert, Smith (2017), “Modern Labor Economics,” 13th edition, Routledge.
履修を推奨する科目
各自の興味に応じて、以下の科目から適宜履修してください。
特論的な科目： Labor Economics II (川口)、Economics of the Family (山口)、Economics of Education (田中)、Empirical Market Design (Son)
分析手法を学ぶ科目： Machine Learning Methods for Empirical Economics (川田)、R for Empirical Economics Research (Griffen)、Applied Econometrics (Son)、Discrete Choice Models (Son)[1]
また、毎週火曜日の10:30-12:00に開かれているMicroeconomics seminar、および不定期開催ながら月曜日の10:30-12:00に開かれるEmpirical micro seminarへの出席を強くお勧めします。様々なテーマの発表を聞くことは皆さんの修士論文や博士論文のテーマを考えるうえでも有益です。スケジュールはCIRJEのウェブサイト http://www.cirje.e.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ を見てください。
[1] Son講師が教えた応用計量経済学と離散選択モデルは、同様の資料を教えています。シラバスを参照してください。