A Short Course in Personnel Economics

This site provides lecture slides, links to published literature, instructional materials, and practice exam questions (with answers) for a short, introductory course in personnel economics.

The materials are based on a one-quarter (ten-week) course I teach at the University of California, Santa Barbara, to upper-division undergraduate economics students. A familiarity with basic economic tools, like budget constraints and indifference curves is helpful but not essential, since all these concepts are developed in the slides.

The lecture materials are organized according to the Parts and Chapters of my Personnel Economics textbook, but can be used independently of the book. Instructors who would like additional practice- or exam questions are encouraged to contact me at peter.kuhn@ucsb.edu.

Each lecture is designed to take about 75 minutes; there are 17 lectures to allow for 3 exams in a 20-class quarter. If you have a different schedule, the materials can easily be divided differently. Again, please feel free to contact me at peter.kuhn@ucsb.edu if you would like to access the underlying (Word) documents to re-format them for your own course.

NEW-- Streamable Video Lectures for the Course

Lecture Slides and Discussion Questions

Part 1: The Principal-Agent Model

Part 2: Evidence on Employee Motivation

Part 3: Employee Selection

Part 4: Competition in the Workplace: Tournaments and Promotions

Part 5: Co-operation in the Workplace: Teams