Labor

Why Work and When

• Now: Leisure (hrs) vs. Consumption ($)

• Now vs. Later: Wage vs. Investments

• “Smoothing”

• Individual Labor Supply Curve

• Reservation Wage

• Efficiency Wage

Shifts in Labor Supply and Demand

• 1950s vs. 1990s: Industry vs. Service

• Technology and income inequality

• Immigration(Except…)

Unions

• Monopsony (bosses) vs. Monopoly (unions; collective bargaining)

• Increased wages + benefits Union members; possibly fewer opportunities non-Union (jobs + wages)– North vs. South; “Anchoring” higher wages for all

• Decline of unions: 1) success of unions (better wages and conditions), 2) the transition to a service economy, 3) an increasingly competitive economy, 4) a changing legal and political environment [Wagner Act (closed shop) vs. Taft-Hartley (open shop)]