Adapting Labour Economics Courses

Change often happens incrementally and slowly. In the economics textbook market, for example, there is an unwritten rule that new textbooks cannot differ more than roughly 15% from the standard textbook in order to be ‘acceptable’ (Colander, 2003).

While our book clearly breaks this rule and proposes more far-reaching and fundamental changes in most chapters, in this chapter we focus instead on how existing courses could be adjusted incrementally. By doing so, we hope to assist educators in improving and adapting the courses they teach without needing to rip them up and start again, as well as helping students make suggestions for how this could be done.

First, we set out the typical contents of current courses. Second, we provide our suggested additions and changes. It is important to note that we pose all these suggestions as potential sources of inspiration, not a checklist of all the things that necessarily should be included. After all, there is a practical limit to what can be taught within a single course.

Courses:

Courses on labour economics currently typically focus on neoclassical (and often microeconomic) models about supply and demand on labour markets. These useful intellectual tools provide valuable insights into a wide-range of topics, from labour supply, wage determination, and human capital, to unemployment, the minimum wage, and inequality. Courses often pay substantial attention to both theoretical mathematical models and empirical econometric research.

Frequently used textbooks:

For many students the world of work, especially full-time work, is still a relatively abstract concept. They have seen other people around them do it, such as their parents, and surely learned from those people’s experiences. But they generally have little personal experience with being a worker. Therefore it can be worthwhile to let students explore the real world of work in a course on labour economics, for instance through conducting interviews. Furthermore, exposing them to different realities related to labour can help them grasp the issue beyond their own experiences.

It can be useful to introduce students to important economic institutions and organizations related to labour, such as unions, social-economic councils, and ministries of social affairs and employment. This can, for example, be done with the help of readings, a lecture by the teacher him or herself, a guest lecture, a visit, and applied exercises. Furthermore, it can be informative to discuss current issues and (public and academic) debates related to labour.

For more detail, see Building Block 2: Know Your Own Economy and Building Block 9: Problems & Proposals.

Besides neoclassical economics there are a number of other schools who have also contributed valuable (complementary) insights to the field of labour economics. A key theoretical approach, in this regard, is Marxian economics, in which labour economics takes a central role. Marxian economics has developed various useful concepts, such as alienation and exploitation, related to both labour relations and the production processes itself.

Another useful approach comes from the cultural scholars, which have focused on how work provides people not only with income but also with a sense of dignity and identity. Other useful insights come from social network analysis and feminist economics, respectively relating to the importance of social connections and weak ties in particular, and the workings and subtleties of gender and ethnic discrimination as well as the importance of unpaid labour in economies. Debates about households and how decisions related to the labour performed there are made could for this reason also be incorporated into labour economics courses. 

Finally, when discussing theories, it can be of serious added value to discuss (recent) empirical (meta) studies. There are, for example, various opposing theories on what effects of the minimum wage is. To enable students to assess the value of these theories, empirical evidence is crucial. Furthermore, it can be very educational for students to learn how to understand and critically read empirical papers. As such, devoting time and even full lectures on discussing important empirical studies can be worthwhile. 

For more detail, see Building Block 7: Research Methods & Philosophy of Science, Building Block 8: Economic Theories and the sections Labour and Households in the background material Pragmatic Pluralism. 

Teaching Materials

Changes in the organisation of labour processes have been fundamental to economic developments. As such, it can be useful for students to learn about the different ways of organising labour, from the top-down scientific management, also known as Taylorism, to decentralised and democratic governance structures and styles, such as holacracy.

For more detail, see Building Block 5: Economic Organisation & Mechanisms and the section Labour in the background material Pragmatic Pluralism. 

Teaching Materials

Work is an enormous part of all our lives and debates about it are often also at the centre of political and economic issues, whether it might be negotiations between a labour union and the managers of a company about the labour conditions or a political debate about raising the minimum wage. As such, labour economics is a highly relevant and important field, as well as one in which normative aspects are often prominent. Therefore, it can be informative and useful for students to become familiar with the different normative perspectives on labour issues. Here it is also key that students learn to understand and spot power (im)balances and relations.

Work is, however, not only of great normative importance, it conceptually also an important and unique economic resource. Prasch (2003), for example, writes that labour is unique because it cannot be separated from its providers, cannot be stored, is self-conscious, and is the one production factor that most of us wish to see well compensated. Letting students think and talk about the seemingly simple question ‘what is labour?’ can therefore be a great addition and introduction to a labour economics course.

For more detail, see Building Block 1: Introducing the Economy and Building Block 10: Economics for a Better World.

Teaching Materials

Courses on labour economics could be enriched by paying attention to history in one or a few lectures. This could, for example, be a way to introduce students to the topic and show to them how fascinating, lively and important it is. Labour history is a well-established academic field from which economics teachers could make use in their courses on labour economics. When discussing the history of labour, one can also briefly include developments in economic thinking about the matter. When discussing the 19th century and industrialization, one could, for example, briefly describe the ideas of economic thinkers of those times, such as David Ricardo and Karl Marx.

For more detail, see Building Block 3: Economic History and Building Block 4: History of Economic Thought & Methods.

Teaching Materials

To create space for the above suggested additions, we advise to focus more on the key ideas and intuitions behind the taught models and devote less teaching time to their technicalities and mathematics. As teaching students to reproduce and work through mathematical models often takes up a large part of the teaching time, this would give the teachers the opportunity to devote more time to practical knowledge, the relevance, institutions, and history. Furthermore, a more even balance between neoclassical economics and other economic approaches could be achieved by decreasing the number of neoclassical ideas and models that are taught.