Competencies and objectives

 

Course context for academic year 2018-19

This course introduces the main concepts of modern labor economics. The course presents a set of tools that allow to interpret the labor statistics, to be familiar with the labor market and employment regulation and to understand how these affect and are affected by other areas of economic activity. The course combines microeconomic and macroeconomic theories (developed to understand how the labor market works) with the empirical analysis and policy evaluation of the labor market.

Thus, students will learn how to apply economic reasoning and models studied in previous microeconomics and macroeconomics courses to understand how the various economic agents interact in the labor market and how these interactions are affecting the aggregate economic indicators. Also, basic tools of data analysis discussed in previous courses are applied to empirically analyze different aspects of the labor market.

 

 

Course content (verified by ANECA in official undergraduate and Master’s degrees)

General Competences (CG)

  • CG1 : Capacity to find and analyse information.
  • CG8 : Analyse problems using critical reasoning, without prejudices, precisely and rigorously.
  • CG9 : Capacity for synthesis.

 

General Competences acquired at University of Alicante (CGUA)

  • CGUA2 : Use computer, I.T. and communications technology tools as a matter of course in all of one's professional activities.
  • CGUA3 : Capacity for oral and written communication.

 

Specific Competences (CE)

  • CE10 : Capacity to apply the knowledge and skills acquired to solve theoretical and applied economic problems.
  • CE11 : Analytical skills for developing theoretical frameworks that simplify study of the real economy and the capacity to set appropriate levels of abstraction when studying different economic questions.
  • CE3 : Bring a rational approach to the analysis and description of any aspect of economic reality.
  • CE5 : Issue expert reports on specific economic situations (international, national or regional) or on sectors of the same.
  • CE6 : Draft economic management projects at international, national or regional level.
  • CE8 : Identify the sources of relevant economic information and their content.
  • CE9 : Understand economic institutions as the result and application of theoretical or formal representations of how the economy works.

 

 

 

Learning outcomes (Training objectives)

- To develop the ability to analyse an individual’s labour supply as the result of the optimum division of time between work and leisure.

- To understand the acquisition of education as an investment in human capital, and its influence on the current and future labour supply.

- To develop the ability to analyse a company’s demand for work as the result of a resource optimisation problem.

- To understand how salaries are fixed and labour efficiency when mobility is perfect and markets are competitive.

- To understand the role of the State and trade unions in the labour market: understanding how fiscal policy, labour regulation and collective bargaining can influence employment levels.

- To understand how the labour market works from both a microeconomic and a macroeconomic standpoint.

 

 

Specific objectives stated by the academic staff for academic year 2018-19

- To understand the factors that determine the outcomes observed in labor markets in today's globalized world.
- To understand how workers, firms, unions and the government interact in the labor market and how these interactions are transferred to economic indicators observed.
- To be able to evaluate the importance of public policy in the context of the labor market.
- To be able to analyze different aspects of real world labor markets.

 

 

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General

Code: 35035
Lecturer responsible:
ALBARRAN PEREZ, PEDRO
Credits ECTS: 6,00
Theoretical credits: 1,50
Practical credits: 0,90
Distance-base hours: 3,60

Departments involved

  • Dept: FOUNDATIONS OF ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
    Area: FOUNDATIONS OF ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
    Theoretical credits: 1,5
    Practical credits: 0,9
    This Dept. is responsible for the course.
    This Dept. is responsible for the final mark record.

Study programmes where this course is taught