COURSE NUMBER: EWMBA 217-13
COURSE TITLE: Personnel Economics
UNITS OF CREDIT: 3 Units
E-MAIL ADDRESS:
CLASS WEB PAGE LOCATION:
MEETING DAY(S)/TIME: Saturdays, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
PREREQUISITE(S):
Since this course is an economic approach to human resources question, we rely upon microeconomics tools. Furthermore, as this covers state of the art empirical studies, knowledge of basic econometric methods is valuable. Ideally students would have also taken microeconomic analysis and introduction to econometrics. Yet, this is not strictly necessary. We make occasional use of mathematics. However, the focus is on the economic insights and their implications.
CLASS FORMAT:
This course relies on both lectures and discussion of state of the art research papers in a non-technical style, in order to develop the key learning points of human resources management. Each lecture introduces economic principles and the statistical methods relevant to the topic of interest.
REQUIRED READINGS: TBD
BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE:
Class discussion 20%
Home reading assignment 30%
Final take home exam 50%
ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND
OBJECTIVES:
Personnel economics is the application of economic principles to the field of human resources management issues, such as compensation, promotions, performance evaluation, selection, and training. The course provides a rigorous theoretical framework and statistical tools for analyzing human resources policies and evaluating it consequences.
Should pay vary across workers within firms? How are pay and promotions structured across jobs to induce optimal effort from employees? Why do firms use teams and how are they used most effectively? Do CEO pay arrangements reflect competitive markets and efficient contracting? What makes an entrepreneur? How should all these human resource management practices be combined within firms?
Traditionally, in the not-too-distant past typical textbooks on human resources management would often avoid generalizations, thinking of each human resources event as separate and institutionally driven.
In contrast, the economics approach of – personnel economics – provides a rigorous framework for analyzing human resources policies. Personnel economics underlies economic principles of human resource management strategies under varying institutional and competitive environments. Personnel economics highlights the importance of information and incentive in the modern economy and provides insights to a wide range of questions.
Implications of personnel economics are not limited to firm level. While the well-documented rising inequality of pay across individuals surely reflects changing demand for skills, it is also likely to reflect changes in human resource practices as compensation has shifted towards pay-for-performance.
Lectures cover micro models and state of the art, yet intuitive, econometric techniques. These are utilized to analyze a wide range of human resource management practices, draw testable implications and evaluate empirically alterative policies of interest. Both tools are introduced in a context specific manner.
Yona Rubinstein received his Ph.D. in Economics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1999. He was previously Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics, Brown University, and Senior Lecturer at the Eitan Berglas School of Economics, Tel Aviv University. His research discusses issues in the general areas of labor economics and the economics of social problems. His recent work examines topics including the effect of increasing earnings within genders on the aggregate female labor supply and on the change in the selection of women into employment and its implication on the observed narrowing gender gaps in pay over the past decades, the economics of education, the effect of family background on skill formation and earnings inequality, the impact of skill certification programs, and the differences in labor market outcomes between ethnic/race groups. Currently he also studies issues such as the economics of terror and the effect of firm unobserved heterogeneity on the evaluation of the foundations of international trade. |