---
title: Labor Economics
description: Labor economics studies the dynamics of the workforce, focusing on wages, employment, and labor market regulations. Learners will understand how wages are determined, the impact of unions and minimum wage laws, and the causes of unemployment.
category: finance-economics
subcategory: economics-(social-lens)
difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced
url: /subject/labor-economics
---

# Labor Economics

Labor economics studies the dynamics of the workforce, focusing on wages, employment, and labor market regulations. Learners will understand how wages are determined, the impact of unions and minimum wage laws, and the causes of unemployment.

## Available Resources

1 Books • 2 Courses • 3 Websites

## Websites

### 1. NBER Labor Studies Program

Program page for the NBER research group covering wages, employment, immigration, education returns, and inequality, listing affiliated economists and new working papers. Readers can track current empirical labor research before it appears in journals.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://www.nber.org/programs-projects/programs-working-groups/labor-studies

**Tags:** labor-economics, working-papers, wages, employment, empirical-research

### 2. IZA World of Labor

Short evidence syntheses written by academic economists, each summarizing what research shows on one labor policy question such as minimum wages or migration. Readers can get a cited overview of the evidence without reading full journal articles.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://wol.iza.org/

**Tags:** labor-economics, labor-policy, evidence-synthesis, employment, wages

### 3. bls.gov

Official U.S. source of labor market statistics, providing current and historical data on employment, unemployment, wages, prices, and productivity. The site offers reports, datasets, tools, and dashboards for exploring labor market trends and statistical methodology.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://bls.gov

**Tags:** websites, humanities-social-sciences, economics

## Courses

### 1. Labor Economics II (MIT 14.662)

**Author:** David Autor, Heidi L Williams

Graduate labor economics on inequality and the wage structure: the Roy model, equalizing differentials, discrimination, skill demand, technology and trade, job loss and early-life determinants of long-run outcomes. Provides 31 lecture note files and problem sets. Prepares you to read current empirical labor research.

**Difficulty:** Advanced | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/14-662-labor-economics-ii-spring-2015/

**Tags:** labor-economics, wage-inequality, skill-demand, technological-change, discrimination

### 2. Economics of Money and Banking

**Author:** Perry Mehrling

Columbia University course that analyses the monetary system through balance sheets: the hierarchy of money, payment clearing, repo and Eurodollar markets, dealer market making, central bank crisis operations, foreign exchange and swaps. Learners can read financial crises and central bank interventions as balance-sheet events.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://www.coursera.org/learn/money-banking

**Tags:** money-and-banking, central-banking, money-markets, shadow-banking, monetary-economics

## Books

### 1. Labor Economics

**Author:** George J. Borjas

Borjas's standard undergraduate textbook on wage and employment determination, covering labor supply and demand, human capital, discrimination, unions, immigration, and unemployment. Readers finish able to interpret empirical labor-market studies and their regression evidence.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0071270272?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, economics

---

*This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge*

*Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).*

View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/labor-economics