IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ilrrev/v54y2001i2p199-223.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Development of the Neoclassical Tradition in Labor Economics

Author

Listed:
  • George R. Boyer
  • Robert S. Smith

Abstract

This essay on labor economics examines neoclassical theory's rise to ascendancy following the second World War, with a secondary focus on the relative decline but continued influence of institutionalist economic theory. The authors describe the evolution of institutional and neoclassical theory from the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries, examine some early intellectual debates between the two camps, briefly describe the work of neoclassical labor economics pioneers, and look at major developments over the past 30 years. They argue that neoclassical economists' increasing intellectual breadth and influence in public policy have led them to pay closer attention to issues that have long been of concern to institutionalists and “neoinstitutionalists.â€

Suggested Citation

  • George R. Boyer & Robert S. Smith, 2001. "The Development of the Neoclassical Tradition in Labor Economics," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 54(2), pages 199-223, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:54:y:2001:i:2:p:199-223
    DOI: 10.1177/001979390105400201
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/001979390105400201
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/001979390105400201?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Altonji, Joseph G, 1986. "Intertemporal Substitution in Labor Supply: Evidence from Micro Data," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(3), pages 176-215, June.
    2. Gary S. Becker, 1981. "A Treatise on the Family," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number beck81-1.
    3. Devine, Theresa J. & Kiefer, Nicolas M., 1991. "Empirical Labor Economics: The Search Approach," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195059366.
    4. Burdett, Kenneth & Wright, Randall, 1989. "Unemployment Insurance and Short-Time Compensation: The Effects on Layoffs, Hours per Worker, and Wages," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(6), pages 1479-1496, December.
    5. Ashenfelter, Orley & Heckman, James J, 1974. "The Estimation of Income and Substitution Effects in a Model of Family Labor Supply," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 42(1), pages 73-85, January.
    6. Goldin, Claudia, 1992. "Understanding the Gender Gap: An Economic History of American Women," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195072709.
    7. George J. Stigler, 1969. "Does Economics Have a Useful Past?," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 1(2), pages 217-230, Fall.
    8. Donohue, John J, III & Heckman, James, 1991. "Continuous versus Episodic Change: The Impact of Civil Rights Policy on the Economic Status of Blacks," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 29(4), pages 1603-1643, December.
    9. Card, David & Krueger, Alan B, 1992. "Does School Quality Matter? Returns to Education and the Characteristics of Public Schools in the United States," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(1), pages 1-40, February.
    10. David Card & Alan B. Krueger, 1997. "A Reanalysis of the Effect of the New Jersey Minimum Wage Increase on the Fast-Food Industry with Representative Payroll Data," Working Papers 772, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    11. Blau, Francine D & Kahn, Lawrence M, 1997. "Swimming Upstream: Trends in the Gender Wage Differential in 1980s," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(1), pages 1-42, January.
    12. John T. Dunlop, 1977. "Industrial Relations, Labor Economics, and Policy Decisions," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(2), pages 6-12, May.
    13. Abowd, John M. & Freeman, Richard B. (ed.), 1991. "Immigration, Trade, and the Labor Market," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226000954, August.
    14. Ehrenberg, Ronald G & Oaxaca, Ronald L, 1976. "Unemployment Insurance, Duration of Unemployment, and Subsequent Wage Gain," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 66(5), pages 754-766, December.
    15. Barry T. Hirsch, 1991. "Labor Unions and the Economic Performance of Unions," Books from Upjohn Press, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, number luepf.
    16. repec:eee:labchp:v:2:y:1986:i:c:p:1139-1181 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. David Card & Alan Krueger, 1997. "A Reanalysis of the Effect of the New Jersey Minimum Wage Increase on the Fast-Food Industry with Representative Payroll Data," Working Papers 772, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    18. J. R. Hicks, 1963. "The Theory of Wages," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-00189-7, October.
    19. Lazear, Edward P, 1979. "Why Is There Mandatory Retirement?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(6), pages 1261-1284, December.
    20. Cain, Glen G, 1976. "The Challenge of Segmented Labor Market Theories to Orthodox Theory: A Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 14(4), pages 1215-1257, December.
    21. Ashenfelter, Orley & Krueger, Alan B, 1994. "Estimates of the Economic Returns to Schooling from a New Sample of Twins," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(5), pages 1157-1173, December.
    22. Zvi Griliches, 1970. "Notes on the Role of Education in Production Functions and Growth Accounting," NBER Chapters, in: Education, Income, and Human Capital, pages 71-127, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    23. Farber, Henry S, 1978. "Bargaining Theory, Wage Outcomes, and the Occurrence of Strikes: An Econometric Analysis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 68(3), pages 262-271, June.
    24. John M. Abowd & Richard B. Freeman, 1991. "Immigration, Trade, and the Labor Market," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number abow91-1.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bruce E. Kaufman, 2013. "Sidney and Beatrice Webb's Institutional Theory of Labor Markets and Wage Determination," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(3), pages 765-791, July.
    2. Bruce E. Kaufman, 2018. "How Capitalism Endogenously Creates Rising Income Inequality and Economic Crisis: The Macro Political Economy Model of Early Industrial Relations," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(1), pages 131-173, January.
    3. Fong, Eric A. & Xing, Xuejing & Orman, Wafa Hakim & Mackenzie, William I., 2015. "Consequences of deviating from predicted CEO labor market compensation on long-term firm value," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 299-305.
    4. Bruce E. Kaufman, 2010. "Chicago and the Development of Twentieth-Century Labor Economics," Chapters, in: Ross B. Emmett (ed.), The Elgar Companion to the Chicago School of Economics, chapter 9, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Michel Rocca, 2017. "L'analyse économique du travail. Complémentarité ou parallélisme des propositions théoriques depuis les années 1880," Working Papers halshs-01566506, HAL.
    6. Dagmar Brožová, 2016. "Forming the Modern Labour Market Economics: On the Role of Institutionalist Theories [Utváření moderní ekonomie trhů práce: neoklasické paradigma s institucionálními teoriemi]," Acta Oeconomica Pragensia, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2016(6), pages 56-68.
    7. Ellen Mutari & Deborah Figart & Marilyn Power, 2001. "Implicit Wage Theories in Equal Pay Debates in the United States," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(2), pages 23-52.
    8. Bruce E. Kaufman, 2012. "An Institutional Economic Analysis of Labor Unions," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51, pages 438-471, April.
    9. Vassil Tsanov & Iskra Beleva, 2014. "Is the labor market in Bulgaria segmented?," Economic Thought journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 3, pages 3-20,21-38.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tito Boeri & Jan van Ours, 2013. "The Economics of Imperfect Labor Markets: Second Edition," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10142.
    2. Stephan E. Maurer & Andrei V. Potlogea, 2021. "Male‐biased Demand Shocks and Women's Labour Force Participation: Evidence from Large Oil Field Discoveries," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 88(349), pages 167-188, January.
    3. Celeste K. Carruthers & Marianne H. Wanamaker, 2017. "Separate and Unequal in the Labor Market: Human Capital and the Jim Crow Wage Gap," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35(3), pages 655-696.
    4. Lex Borghans & Bas Ter Weel & Bruce A. Weinberg, 2014. "People Skills and the Labor-Market Outcomes of Underrepresented Groups," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 67(2), pages 287-334, April.
    5. Matthew J. Slaughter, 1997. "International Trade and Labor-Demand Elasticities," NBER Working Papers 6262, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Dagmar Brožová, 2016. "Forming the Modern Labour Market Economics: On the Role of Institutionalist Theories [Utváření moderní ekonomie trhů práce: neoklasické paradigma s institucionálními teoriemi]," Acta Oeconomica Pragensia, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2016(6), pages 56-68.
    7. Michael A. Boozer & Alan B. Kreuger & Shari Wolkon, 1992. "Race and School Quality Since Brown v. Board of Education," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 23(1992 Micr), pages 269-338.
    8. Peter Hull & Michal Kolesár & Christopher Walters, 2022. "Labor by design: contributions of David Card, Joshua Angrist, and Guido Imbens," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 124(3), pages 603-645, July.
    9. Angel de la Fuente & Antonio Ciccone, 2003. "Human capital in a global and knowledge-based economy," UFAE and IAE Working Papers 562.03, Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC).
    10. Francine D. Blau, 1992. "The Fertility of Immigrant Women: Evidence from High-Fertility Source Countries," NBER Chapters, in: Immigration and the Work Force: Economic Consequences for the United States and Source Areas, pages 93-134, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Robert M. Solow & Jean-Philippe Touffut (ed.), 2010. "The Shape of the Division of Labour," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14184.
    12. Trofimov, Ivan D. & Baawi, Nurulhana A., 2020. "Human Capital: State of the Field and Ways to Extend the Concept," MPRA Paper 107039, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Claudia Goldin, 2006. "The Quiet Revolution That Transformed Women's Employment, Education, and Family," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(2), pages 1-21, May.
    14. Ran Abramitzky & Leah Platt Boustan & Katherine Eriksson, 2012. "Europe's Tired, Poor, Huddled Masses: Self-Selection and Economic Outcomes in the Age of Mass Migration," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(5), pages 1832-1856, August.
    15. Dustmann, Christian & Glitz, Albrecht, 2011. "Migration and Education," Handbook of the Economics of Education, in: Erik Hanushek & Stephen Machin & Ludger Woessmann (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 327-439, Elsevier.
    16. Paweenawat, Sasiwimon Warunsiri & Liao, Lusi, 2022. "Parenthood penalty and gender wage gap: Recent evidence from Thailand," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    17. John Gardner, 2016. "Immigration and wages: new evidence from the African American Great Migration," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-45, December.
    18. Borghans, Lex & ter Weel, Bas & Weinberg, Bruce A., 2005. "People People: Social Capital and the Labor-Market Outcomes of Underrepresented Groups," IZA Discussion Papers 1494, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Donal O'Neill, 2000. "Evaluating Labour Market Interventions," Economics Department Working Paper Series n990300, Department of Economics, National University of Ireland - Maynooth.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:54:y:2001:i:2:p:199-223. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.