Labor Economics at Michigan Economics

Basit Zafar, Professor

​

​

Department of Economics

University of Michigan

March 2022

​

​

Session outline

1. Brief faculty introductions
2. Labor field presentation
3. Q&A with prospective students

Labor Economics at Michigan

• How employers and employees respond to changes in wages, profits, prices, working conditions, and (family) constraints
• Determinants of compression and dispersion in distribution of realized outcomes (wages, wealth, wellbeing) in the economy
• Wide range of labor-adjacent applied fields (health, crime, education, behavioral, etc.)
• Careful attention to empirical measurement with a wide range of methodological approaches:
• Design-based research
• Structural modeling

Labor faculty appointed in Economics Department

Stephens

Reynoso

Heller

Bound

Brown

Mueller-Smith

Zafar

Wolfers

Craig

Bleakley

Other relevant faculty

Institute for Social Research

​

​

Ford School of Public Policy

​

​

Abramowitz

Other relevant faculty

Rosenblat

McCall

​

​

Miller

​

​

Cohn

​

​

Chen

​

​

Prescott

​

​

Buchmueller

Ross School of Business

School of Information

Law School

Norton

Education

Public Health

Adhvaryu

2^nd Year Sequence: Econ 621 and 622

Labor field taught over two 2nd year courses, split into 4 quarters

Students combine labor with a wide range of other fields: Macro, Public, Development, International, IO, Econometrics, History

Most also take Econ 675: applied microeconometric research methods

Winter (622)

Fall (621)

Q1 (Stephens) Q2 (Zafar)

Q3 (Reynoso) Q4 (Reynoso)

2^nd Year Sequence: Econ 621 and 622

• Labor supply with applications to taxes and social programs

​

• Household labor decisions and the allocation of time

​

• Work decisions over the life-cycle

​

Winter (622)

Fall (621)

Q1 (Stephens) Q2 (Zafar)

Q3 (Reynoso) Q4 (Reynoso)

1^st quarter:

2^nd Year Sequence: Econ 621 and 622

​

​

Winter (622)

Fall (621)

Q1 (Stephens) Q2 (Zafar)

Q3 (Reynoso) Q4 (Reynoso)

2^nd quarter:

• Roy Selection Models
• Compensating differentials
• Discrimination
• Human capital

​

2^nd Year Sequence: Econ 621 and 622

• Models of household formation and organization

​

• Labor market discrimination and gender gaps

​

• Household decision making and labor market heterogeneity

​

• Interaction of marriage, labor markets, and inequality

Winter (622)

Fall (621)

Q1 (Stephens) Q2 (Zafar)

Q3 (Reynoso) Q4 (Reynoso)

3^rd and 4^th quarters:

UM PhD Student Active Researcher

Opportunities at UM help you become active, independent researchers:

​

​

• Summer research assistantship program
• 2^nd year research proposals in Labor
• 3^rd year paper course
• “NoRePTiLE” labor lunch
• ISR-Zwerdling Seminar in Labor Economics

​

​

​

Research Hubs at Michigan

Recent research

• Brown and Hammermesh (2019). “Wages and Hours Laws: What Do We Know? What Can be Done?” Russell � Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences
• Deshpande and Mueller-Smith (forthcoming). “Does Welfare Prevent Crime? The Criminal Justice Outcomes of Youth Removed from SSI”. Quarterly Journal of Economics.
• Geronimus, Bound, Rodriguez, Timpe, and Waidmann (2019). “Weathering, Drugs and Whack-a-mole: � Fundamental and Proximate Causes of Widening Educational Inequity in U.S. Life Expectancy by Sex and Race, � 1990-2015,” Journal of Health and Social Behavior.
• Davis, and Heller (2020). “Rethinking the Benefits of Youth Employment Programs: The Heterogeneous Effects of Summer Jobs” (2020), The Review of Economics and Statistics
• Coffman, Ugalde Araya, and Zafar (2021). “A (Dynamic) Investigation of Stereotypes, Belief-updating, and Behavior.” Working Paper
• Reynoso (2020). “The impact of divorce laws on the equilibrium in the marriage market.” Working Paper.
• Stephens and Toohey (2020). “The Impact of Health on Labor Market Outcomes: Experimental Evidence from a � Large-Scale Experiment,” Working Paper.

​

​

Range of topics and empirical tools embraced:

Support students to pursue their interests!

• Jamie Fogel: “What is a Labor Market? Classifying Workers and Jobs Using Network Theory”

​

• Shawn Martin: “Earnings Growth and Job Search: General and Specific Majors”

​

• Michael Ricks: “Worth the Wait? Strategic Kindergarten Entry Improves Achievement but Increases Inequity”

Job market paper from current students:

Let us know if you have any questions

Charlie Brown: charlieb@umich.edu

Sara Heller sbheller@umich.edu

Mike Mueller-Smith: mgms@umich.edu

Mel Stephens: mstep@umich.edu

Ana Reynoso: areynoso@umich.edu

Basit Zafar: bzafar@umich.edu

​