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MA Labor Market Policy is a one week intensive class on models of the labor market in different schools of economic thought as well as the analysis of labor market policies like minimum wages, front-loading unemployment benefits and work time reduction. Students will read the seminal contributions on labor market inequality in neoclassical/new Keynesian, Post Keynesian as well as Marxist and Classical Political Economics. They will furthermore have the opportunity to work with the unique and proprietary Austrian Social Security Database on their own empirical projects.

After a one week intensive class, students will participate in a panel discussion on labor markets in different schools of economic thought. They will then work on a take-home midterm essay exam and prepare a small research proposal. After discussing the proposal and appropriate data sources with the lecturer, students will conduct an empirical analysis and present their results.

Basic knowledge of econometrics and statistical software are a pre-requisite for this course. Coding examples will be done in R/RStudio, but no coding class or coding bootcamp will be provided. Some basic knowledge of labor market models and history of economic thought is encouraged, but not strictly necessary.