ESF:MPV_PTPZ Labour Market and Employment - Course Information

MPV_PTPZ Labour Market and Employment Policy

Extent and Intensity

0/2/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
In-person direct teaching

Teacher(s)

Mgr. Martin Guzi, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Dr. Magdalena Adamus (lecturer)

Guaranteed by

Mgr. Martin Guzi, Ph.D.
Department of Public Economics – Faculty of Economics and Administration
Contact Person: Jana Biskupová
Supplier department: Department of Public Economics – Faculty of Economics and Administration

Prerequisites

The course has no formal prerequisites but it does require a willingness to engage with numbers and data, as well as some basic microeconomics.

Course Enrolment Limitations

The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.

fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with

there are 8 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display

Course objectives

This course will present and discuss real-life examples to understand the key employment policy challenges and the role of labour market institutions. The materials presented in the course are exclusively based on the recently published research papers of recognized scholars.
The following topics will be discussed: employment and wage determination, social and cultural drivers of labour market gender gaps, hiring discrimination, characteristics of flexible and rigid labor markets, short-time work compensation schemes, income inequality, labour migration, work careers of university graduates, population ageing, future of working lives, online job vacancies and skills analysis, precarious work, undeclared work, and platform work.

Learning outcomes

Students will learn to discuss, understand and tackle contemporary labour market problems and policy challenges. The course will put an emphasis on empirical research and encourage students to elaborate selective case studies into class presentations.
Knowledge, skills and competence you will learn:
• understand the role of labour market institutions
• analyse current policy questions related to labour markets
• work with international open databases and interpret data
• use of the course content in your own academic work, for example in analyses that are part of the master thesis

Syllabus

• 1. Labour market characteristics
• • the purpose and motivation to work, labour market during the economic crisis, employment rates over the life-time, youth unemployment, vacancy, employment, underemployment, labour market tightness, inactive population (out of labour force), self-employment, job insecurity, fringe benefits, labor and non-labor income, minimum wage vs reservation wage.
• 2. Cultural and social factors contributing to gender gaps in the labour market?
• • gender stereotypes, occupation sorting of women, glass ceiling, gender employment gap, Mathilda effect, motherhood penalty, sandwich generation, unpaid household work, reversal of gender gaps in education, opportunity vs necessity entrepreneurship, mompreneurs, masculinity vs femininity traits, the long-term benefits of working mothers for society.
• 3. Labour market discrimination
• • hiring discrimination, correspondence study, anonymous job applications, discrimination in online markets
• 4. Work careers of university graduates
• • decision to start the university education, earnings advantage for tertiary-educated workers, characteristics of flexible and rigid labor markets, the long-term impact of recession on low and high skilled graduates.
• 5. Wages around the globe
• • minimum wages around the globe, workers earning close to minimum wage, target income and its implications, income vs substitution effect, labour supply elasticity, wage comparisons between public and private sector employees, Mincer equation and interpretation of coefficients, estimates of “rates of return” to education.
• 6. Labor mobility and migration
• • theory of migration, Roy selection, international labour migration.
• 7. Income inequality
• • changes in the income distribution in the last 50 and 100 years - world perspective, why top 1% earned income is important, inequality measures, policy to reduce inequality (tax progressivity, cap on executive pay) and poverty (participation income).
• 8. Undeclared work
• 9. Work-life balance
• 10. Platform work
• 11.The Aging Workforce
• • future of labor force, population ageing, demographic dividend, replacement migration, activation of local labor force, current demographic challenges in the EU and available policy actions to deal with them.
• Please consult the ‘Interactive syllabus’ for the latest information.

Literature

required literature
• IZA World of Labor is an online platform that provides policy analysts, journalists, academics and society generally with relevant and concise information on labor market issues.

recommended literature
• Our World in Data
• HOFFMAN, Saul D. and Susan L. AVERETT. Women and the economy : family, work and pay. Fourth edition. London: Macmillan international, higher education, 2021, xviii, 395. ISBN 9781352012002. info
• BORJAS, George J. Labor economics. Eight edition. New York: McGraw-Hill Education, 2020, xvi, 478. ISBN 9781260565522. info

Teaching methods

Classes have a seminar format with a strong focus on class discussion and cooperative learning. We expect students to come to the classes.They are expected to participate in the class discussions and introduce the papers that they have read and also, their thoughts about them. If students miss classes not only will they not know the material, but they also deprive their classmates and lecturer of learning from them, and we lose the benefit of their contribution.

Assessment methods

You can earn 100 points and your grade will depend on the overall score. Grading is based on attendance (20 points), written assignment (15 points), class presentation (15 points), lecture assignment (10 points), online midterm exam (15 points) and final exam (25 points). The basic condition for getting a grade (A-E) from the course is to gain at least 60 points overall and at least 15 points (60%) from the final exam. Grading: A 100 - 92 points, B 91 – 84 points, C 83 – 76 points, D 75 – 68 points, E 67 – 60 points, F less than 60 points

Náhradní absolvování

Students planning to study abroad through the Erasmus+ program should contact the course coordinator. Students can 1) pursue a similar course at a foreign university or 2) consider enrolling in the course in the following semester.

Language of instruction

English

Further comments (probably available only in Czech)

The course is taught annually.
The course is taught every week.
Credit evaluation note: k = 1.

Teacher's information

Instructor: Martin Guzi,
Office Hours: by appointment,
Email: martin.guzi@econ.muni.cz

• Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2026, recent)
  
• Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/econ/spring2026/MPV_PTPZ