Labor Relations Economics (ECON)

4390 Employee Benefits. Three credits. (Same as FIN 4390.) Prerequisite: Junior standing. Includes descriptive review and taxation, legislative, and administrative dimensions of the major components of employee benefit plans such as retirement systems, deferred compensation plans, health insurance, death benefits, disability benefits, paid and unpaid time off. Technical analysis and problem solving emphasized to develop applied skills. Social insurance and international benefits integrated.

4420 Labor and Human Resource Economics. Three credits. Prerequisites: ECON 2410 or 2420; junior standing. Current issues and theories, returns to training and education (human capital), earnings differences; union impacts and government regulation of labor relations and labor markets; human resource information system modeling, including applied PC or mainframe data analysis and integration of Internet information sources.

4490 Industrial Relations Legislation. Three credits. (Same as BLAW 4490 and MGMT 4490.) Prerequisite: Junior standing. Economic background and effects of government regulation of labor relations; emphasis on a detailed examination of the National Labor Relations Act as amended or expanded by the Labor Management Relations Act, the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosures Act, and Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act.

4510 Unions and Collective Bargaining. Three credits. (Same as MGMT 4510.) Prerequisite: Junior standing. The collective bargaining process: its evolution in the public and private sectors and its contemporary legal environment; compensation, institutional and administrative issues; strikes and impasse resolution procedures.

5390 Employee Benefits. Three credits. (Same as ECON 5390.) Includes descriptive review and taxation, legislative, and administrative dimensions of the major components of employee benefit plans such as retirement systems, deferred compensation plans, health insurance, death benefits, disability benefits, paid and unpaid time off. Technical analysis and problem solving emphasized to develop applied skills. Social insurance and international benefits integrated.

5420 Labor and Human Resource Economics. Three credits. Cur-rent issues and theories, returns to training and education (human capital), earnings differences; theoretical interpretation and empirical economic impacts of unions, government regulation, and international forces upon labor relations and labor markets; human resource information systems (spreadsheet applications) and integration of Internet information sources and forensic analysis.

5490 Industrial Relations Legislation. Three credits. Effects of domestic and international legislation and regulation of governments on the practical functions of labor markets and employment relations in the public and private sectors. Specific dimensions include unions and other collective and collaborative institutions, workforce diversity, and the impacts of technology. Domestic and international electronic' resources heavily integrated into learning experiences based on research and analysis.

5510 Unions and Collective Bargaining. Three credits. Collective bargaining contract administration and alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. Information technology tools. Analytical focus on the impacts of total compensation agreements, strike strategies, and the interdependent influences of the union and non-union sectors of the economy. Practical cases emphasized. A brief international comparative survey of unions and other collective relationships included.

6040 Survey of Employment Relations. Three credits. Survey of employment relations with emphasis on developing a general con-text, computational skills, and ability to conduct informed discourse on the content. Computational skills include simple time value and statistical analysis limited to calculator or spreadsheet applications. Students expected to demonstrate presentation skills utilizing different media. For current or aspiring professionals in employment relations who need to retool and/or need a course which, upon successful completion, will facilitate entry into the M.A. in Economics Industrial Relations concentration. Also a suitable elective for students in related fields of study.

6390/ 7390 Social Insurance, Pensions, and Benefits. Three credits. Prerequisites: ECON 4390/5390 (or equivalent). An intensive survey of policy and practice in employee benefits, with an in-depth examination of pension plans. Covers an interdisciplinary mix of economics, accounting/finance, law, and regulation.

6500 Modern Issues in Labor and Industrial Relations. Three credits. A survey of labor market and employment relations issues evolving in our changing economic environment. Coverage includes the concepts of efficiency, equity, and ethics of market and institutional behavior and economic issues related to work force demographics and work place organization. Distinction drawn between cooperative and competitive models of economic organization and outcomes in the employer-employee relations environment. Internet labor market information sources and international comparisons incorporated.

6560 Mergers, Acquisitions, and Corporate Restructuring. Three credits. (Same as FIN 6560.) Issues covered include the reasons firms merge, buyer and seller motivations, the assessment of merger prospect value, merger waves and their consequences, the concentration of economic power resulting from mergers, policies toward mergers, the effects of takeover defenses, and the effects of mergers on the economy.

6510/ 7510 Theory and Analysis in Labor Economics and Industrial Relations. Three credits. Prerequisite: ECON 4570 or 6000 or 4420/5420 (or equivalent of either). Recommended prerequisites: Courses or equivalent experience involving financial computations, spreadsheet applications, and statistical software. Micro and macro theory of labor demand and supply and government policy implications, economic theory and measurement of human capital, returns to education, discrimination, income distribution, and impacts of international trade.

6570/ 7570 Industrial Organization and Strategy. Three credits. Pre-requisites: ECON 6120 and 6620 (or equivalent) or permission of the instructor. Historical overview of the development of industrial organization as a field, followed by intensive review of the recent theoretical and empirical literature on industry behavior and strategy. Behavior of firms in oligopoly markets emphasized. Topics include basic theory of non-cooperative games, welfare effects of non-competitive behavior, and antitrust and regulatory policy toward such behaviors.

Top of Page