Econ 315: Labor Economics Market Analysis
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Econ 315: Labor Economics
Market Analysis
This assignment will be less structured than the other ones. You are going to design a presentation describing how a particular labor market “works.” Over the course of the semester, we have become familiar with a variety of labor markets and how they operate. You will submit a file of your slides, interview notes, and an article. You will also record a presentation using VoiceThread and watch other students’ presentations to provide feedback.
The guidelines of this assignment are:
1. You must create a PowerPoint presentation consisting of between 8 and 10 slides to present through VoiceThread to the class. The outline of the presentation is listed below.
2. Your VoiceThread presentation should last between 7 and 10 minutes. There will be a 2-day window where students can ask questions and you are expected to respond to most of them within a reasonable timeframe.
3. In the grading, completion of the assignment according to the instructions counts the most, following by content of your slides, followed by the quality of your presentation
The purpose of this assignment is to:
· Help you apply the methods we learn in class to a new labor market.
· Give you some experience using a new technology tool.
· Increase your ability to discuss labor economics at a professional level.
This report should include the following components:
1. Choose a labor market to analyze. The market does not need to be perfectly competitive and can even be related to your current job if you have one. You are welcome to discuss your choice with the instructor, but the instructor will not suggest markets to analyze. The only markets ruled out are those we have already analyzed in the online readings.
2. Gather information about your market, based on personal experience, discussions with people who work or hire in that market, and/or readings. You should have a basic understanding of the institutional factors of the market (Is it competitive? Are there unions? Etc.), supply and demand (Is production labor intensive? Is there a lot of turnover? Etc.) and wages and employment.
There are three sources you should use in particular. The first is an “interview,” or discussion about your market, with at least on person who works in it, hopefully at the managerial level. The second is at least one good newspaper, magazine, or journal article of 1,000 words of more. The third, for basic wage, employment, and expected employment growth data is the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH), www.bls.gov/oco (Look up the closest occupation if necessary).
3. Prepare your PowerPoint presentation, as discussed below.
4. Practice your presentation. Public speaking skills are very valuable!
5. Record your presentation using VoiceThread and name your presentation using your last name, occupation, and semester (like "Smith, Wrestlers, Fall 2050").
6. When you publish your VoiceThread, make sure it is set to "Anyone can view".
7. Share your VoiceThread by posting a link in a discussion board post with the same title.
8. Upload a single PDF to the course dropbox which includes: your slides (in presentation view), the article, OOH printout of the occupation, and interview notes. Do not upload them as separate files.
Structuring your presentation:
1. Your presentation should have a narrative or theme. I want you to first identify a “problem” that your labor market has, and show how the market solves it, or how the firms in that market solve it.
Identify the problem in your title slide on PowerPoint–now you have a hook to make your presentation interesting. For example: “FAST FOOD RESTAURANTS–HOW DO THEY MINIMIZE LABOR COSTS GIVEN RAPIDLY FLUCTUATING PRODUCT DEMAND?”
If you understand your market well, your narrative–the problem and the solution–will “spring to life” as it did in the many readings we have had this semester. While firms share certain basic labor market problems that they must solve, the details of the problem and of the solutions generally differ by market. Understanding these will help make your presentation distinct and meaningful.
2. After your title slide, present some basic facts about your market (as mentioned above). Describe, in simple terms, how this market functions. This can take two to four slides. If you can make a meaningful chart, graph, or table of basic information about your market, please do so.
3. Next, clearly describe the problem to be solved by your market. This should take one slide.
4. Next, describe the main way or ways your market / firms solve this problem. Do not present a laundry list–focus on the important stuff. There should be least one link to the economic theory discussed in class in this part of your presentation, and one theory-related graph to illustrate this link. That is, show how the theory of labor economics helps us understand how this market / firm solves the problem you stated. This part of the presentation should take two to four slides.
5. Present a one-slide conclusion.
Your slides should list bullet points, or present a simple graph, table, or image, and they should not be wordy–you augment the slides with your verbal discussion. Therefore, do not simply read your slides; instead, elaborate on the information given in the slides. You are welcome to prepare your talk on your own paper and read from it–that is not the same as reading your slides to the class.
2023-05-22