The Columbia Labor Workshop – The Rise and Decline of an Intellectual Community

Studies of science emphasize the importance of the years of doctoral training, and the period immediately after, as crucial in shaping the interests and career of new researchers. Moreover, the importance of personal interactions and institutional contexts has been underlined as key factors to explain the development of academic careers. Nonetheless, these aspects have received limited attention in the history of economics. In this article we analyse the establishment and development of the Columbia Labour Workshop, which was established in the early sixties by Gary Becker and Jacob Mincer. This workshop had a major impact on the development of human capital theory and neoclassical labour economics, notably due to its role in the training of young academics, either their doctoral students or young academics that joined the workshop. The analysis will present the details of the workshop, mapping individuals and topics of research, and place it in the context of training in labour economics at that time. We will reflect on the factors that contributed to its success in the 1960s and early 1970s and its subsequent decline in the late 1970s. JEL Codes: A23; B21; I2; J01; J1; J2; J3