George Borjas' well-received text blends coverage of traditional topics with modern theory and developments into a superb Labor economics book. His integration of theory with facts and coverage of latest research make his book one of the most popular at the middle and upper end of the market.

Key Features

• More Policy Applications and Current Research: The author has added policy applications and detailed descriptions of state-of-the-art research studies. The book is more cutting-edge and reflective of the field of labor economics today than ever.
• Many new examples and applications: these new examples involve labor markets or policy changes outside the United States such as how school construction programs in Indonesia can be used to estimate the rate of return to schooling (Chapter 7) and an analysis of the unemployment problem in Europe (Chapter 13). The Third Edition is fresh and relevant.
• New End-of-Chapter Material: The Third Edition contains additional end of chapter problems for each chapter (15 problems per chapter, up from previous 8 or 9). Even instructors who have used Borjas in previous editions will have brand-new material to work with, and students will benefit from these expanded sections for extra reinforcement.
• New Selected Readings Section: A "Selected Readings" section added to each chapter, 8 readings per chapter. This new feature allows for further student exploration of the topics.
• Weblinks section added to each chapter: the addition of Weblinks to the Third Edition allows students to explore the Web for additional research in labor economics and will allow the text to remain current throughout the life of the edition.
• Complete re-write of the regression appendix. Example given is considerably more relevant to the course.
• It details the impact of mean education and "female-ness" of an occupation on the mean earnings in an occupation.
• Approach: Labor economics is surveyed with an emphasis on both theory and facts. This approach relies more on "the economic way of thinking" than other texts.
• Special pedagogical features include "Theory of Work" boxes and extended policy applications throughout the text. E.g. Female Labor Supply and Economic Development; Human Capital Externalities, "Key Concepts" appear in boldface type in the text and are listed at chapter end as do Chapter summaries, Review Questions and Problems, Selected Readings section, Weblinks Section at the end of each chapter.
• The book is much shorter than competing textbooks: Borjas contains an introductory chapter, plus 12 substantive chapters. If the instructor wished to cover all of the material, each chapter could serve as the basis for about a week"s worth of lectures in a typical undergraduate course. Despite the book"s brevity, the instructor will find that all of the key topics in labor economics are covered. The discussion, however, is kept to essentials. The author has not deviated into tangential material. Borjas is geared towards those who prefer their labor economics "short and sweet."
• Motivating examples The text includes a number of policy-relevant examples, including a discussion of the link between labor supply and the Earned Income Tax Credit (Chapter 2), a discussion of how taxes and subsidies affect labor demand (Chapter 5); and a discussion the intergenerational correlation in earnings (Chapter 8). Students are better able to understand the links between theory and reality.