Teaching

For undergraduates I teach Labor Economics (EC 356) and Environmental Economics (EC371).

On the PhD level I regularly teach Labor Economics (EC 751/752) and Public Economics (EC 762). I have also taught Labor Economics on the MA level (EC551).

In the academic year 2019/20 I will teach EC 752 and EC 762. In 2020/21, I will teach EC 356, EC 752 and 762.

EC 356 - Labor Economics

This course provides an introduction to the field of labor economics. The nature of their work is one of the core factors of shaping people’s life. The choice of a career is a fundamental decision in life, the income derived from work is a crucial determinant of physical well-being, losing a job and unemployment are major life shocks etc. For most, work is the most immediate effect of how the economy affects individuals.

In this class we learn what determines individuals’ decisions to work, their ability to find a job, and how much they earn. The course will cover 4 broad aspects of the labor market. Each of these aspects will be focused on answering a key question in labor economics will analyze a core labor market policy:

  1. What determines individuals decisions whether and how much to work?

    • Income taxes and welfare benefits / transfers.

  2. What determines how many workers firms want to hire?

    • The minimum wage.

  3. How does unemployment arise in the labor market?

    • Unemployment insurance.

  4. What determines the wage structure in the US? This will cover topics such as returns to schooling, discrimination in the labor market and rising wage inequality.

    • We will discuss various approaches for policy makers to respond to rising wage inequality.

The goal of the course is to provide a thorough understanding of central concepts in labor economics, learn mathematical models to clarify economic interactions and problems and to provide an introduction into empirical research in labor economics. The class will teach basic econometrics and you will analyze real world data using the software package Stata.

This course will be taught in a blended format, where you prepare for each class by watching video lectures and going through readings at home. In-class time will be mainly devoted to applying these concepts in group work as well as to class discussions.

You can download a preliminary version of the syllabus here (Fall 2020).

EC 752 - Labor Economics

This class, as part of the sequence in labor economics, covers current research in 6 areas: 1) The determinants of labor supply and 2) labor demand; 3) the basic model of job search, that underlies much of labor economics and it’s application to understanding unemployment; 4) the optimal design of unemployment insurance as an example how empirical estimates in labor economics can be linked to policy making; 5) the determinants of wage dispersion and 6) the potential for behavioral economics to improve our understanding of labor markets.

In addition to providing an overview over these topics, the class will introduce students to the state of the art in empirical work in labor economics, emphasize different ways how theory can guide and be combined with empirics, provide hands-on experience in structural and reduced form estimation, and offer examples of recent job market papers in economics in order to help students identify topics for their own research.

EC 762 - Public Economics

This class provides an overview over the field of Public Economics with an emphasis on designing the tax and transfer system. We will cover in some depth optimal income taxation and transfer programs. On the theoretical side we will cover basic insights from traditional optimal taxation theory. Recent work in public finance has developed towards models where relevant welfare parameters are summarized in ‘sufficient statistics’ which can often directly estimated in the data using natural experiments for identification. We will cover this approach in detail and carefully discuss advances on the empirical side made in recent years.

The course has several goals: 1) to provide a deep understanding of theoretical, empirical, and policy considerations in the area of public economics, 2) to develop solid understanding how theory and empirics can be combined in useful ways to provide deeper insights, and 3) to offer practice in understanding and criticizing empirical research. 4) To begin developing a research proposal for a paper in public economics or in an area where public economics interacts with other fields, such as Development, Labor, Environmental, or Health.

The course will consist of a series of classes, which are going to be a combination of lectures, class discussions and student presentations. There will be three problem sets to build some technical skills, three referee reports and students are required to develop a research proposal. This proposal should consist of a theoretical and empirical part and the last version should clearly describe the question, the model, explain the empirical method and data, but does not have to include empirical results.


https://www.dropbox.com/s/ki777u90sou2si1/Segregation_Academies%20%283%29.pdf?dl=0


https://www.dropbox.com/s/cmc3gnugik7dxhu/ECN_751_Proposal_Presentation.pdf?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/oq6ngfwhl4zdoni/Labor_research%20%283%29.pdf?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wrw1c39iqfn2mh7/Research_Proposal_v2.pdf?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/esprorz7soomrpy/Archive.zip?dl=0