Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Chapter 1. Introduction -- The Labor Market -- Labor Economics: Some Basic Concepts -- Plan of the Text -- Chapter 2. Overview of the Labor Market -- The Labor Market: Definitions, Facts, and Trends -- How the Labor Market Works -- Applications of the Theory -- Chapter 3. The Demand for Labor -- Profit Maximization -- The Short-Run Demand for Labor When Both Product and Labor Markets Are Competitive -- The Demand for Labor in Competitive Markets When Other Inputs Can Be Varied -- Labor Demand When the Product Market Is Not Competitive -- Monopsony in the Labor Market -- Policy Application: The Labor Market Effects of Employer Payroll Taxes and Wage Subsidies -- Chapter 4. Labor Demand Elasticities -- The Own-Wage Elasticity of Demand -- The Cross-Wage Elasticity of Demand -- Policy Application: Effects of Minimum Wage Laws -- Applying Concepts of Labor Demand Elasticity to the Issue of Technological Change -- Chapter 5. Quasi-Fixed Labor Costs and Their Effects on Demand -- Nonwage Labor Costs -- The Employment/Hours Trade-off -- Firms' Labor Investments and the Demand for Labor -- General and Specific Training -- Hiring Investments -- Chapter 6. Supply of Labor to the Economy: The Decision to Work -- Trends in Labor Force Participation and Hours of Work -- A Theory of the Decision to Work -- Policy Applications -- Chapter 7. Labor Supply: Household Production, the Family, and the Life Cycle -- The Theory of Household Production -- The Tripartite Choice: Market Work, Household Work, and Leisure -- Joint Labor Supply Decisions within the Household -- Life-Cycle Aspects of Labor Supply -- Policy Application: Child Care and Labor Supply -- Chapter 8. Compensating Wage Differentials and Labor Markets -- Job Matching: The Role of Worker Preferences and Information -- Hedonic Wage Theory and the Risk of Injury -- Hedonic Wage Theory and Employee Benefits -- Chapter 9. Investments in Human Capital: Education and Training -- Human Capital Investments: The Basic Model -- The Demand for a College Education -- Education, Earnings, and Postschooling Investments in Human Capital -- Is Education a Good Investment? -- Chapter 10. Worker Mobility: Migration, Immigration, and Turnover -- The Determinants of Worker Mobility -- Geographic Mobility -- Policy Application: Restricting Immigration -- Employee Turnover and Job Matching -- Chapter 11. Pay and Productivity: Wage Determination within the Firm -- Motivating Workers: An Overview of the Fundamentals -- Productivity and the Basis of Yearly Pay -- Productivity and the Level of Pay -- Productivity and the Sequencing of Pay -- Applications of the Theory: Explaining Three Puzzles -- Chapter 12. Gender, Race, and Ethnicity in the Labor Market -- Measured and Unmeasured Sources of Earnings Differences -- Theories of Market Discrimination -- Federal Programs to End Discrimination -- Chapter 13. Unions and the Labor Market -- Union Structure and Membership -- Constraints on the Achievement of Union Objectives -- The Activities and Tools of Collective Bargaining -- The Effects of Unions -- Chapter 14. Inequality in Earnings -- Measuring Inequality -- Earnings Inequality since 1980: Some Descriptive Data -- The Underlying Causes of Growing Inequality -- International Comparisons of Changing Inequality -- Chapter 15. Unemployment -- A Stock-Flow Model of the Labor Market -- Frictional Unemployment -- Structural Unemployment -- Demand-Deficient (Cyclical) Unemployment -- Seasonal Unemployment -- When Do We Have Full Employment?