Modern Labour Economics;Theory and Public Policy

The best-selling Modern Labor Economics provides a clear, comprehensive introduction to labor market behavior. In addition to presenting core theory, Ehrenberg and Smith provide empirical evidence for or against each hypothesis, explore the usefulness of various theories for public policy analysis, and include detailed policy examples in each chapter.

The Tenth Edition incorporates critical developments in the field of labor economics, with new discussions of behavioral economics and immigration as well as a new chapter on international trade and globalization. Review questions appear at the end of each chapter, and problem sets have been expanded to give students ample practice opportunities.

About the Author

Ronald G. Ehrenberg is the Irving M. Ives Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations and Economics at Cornell University and a Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow. He is also Director of the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute. Ehrenberg received a BA in mathematics from Harpur College (SUNY Binghamton) in 1966 and a PhD in economics from Northwestern University in 1970. As a member of the Cornell faculty for 32 years, he has authored or co-authored over 120 papers, and authored or edited 20 books. He was the founding editor of Research in Labor Economics, and served a ten-year term as co-editor of the Journal of Human Resources. He has been a member of several editorial boards and a consultant to numerous governmental agencies and commissions, as well as numerous universities and private research corporations.

His recent research has focused on higher education issues. Ehrenberg has supervised the dissertations of thirty-nine PhD students and served on committees for countless more. He is also passionate about undergraduate education, involves undergraduate students in his research, and has co-authored papers with a number of these undergraduates. In 2003, ILR-Cornell awarded him the General Mills Foundation Award for Exemplary Undergraduate Teaching. In 2005, he was named a Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow, the highest award for undergraduate teaching that exists at Cornell.

Ehrenberg has served as a consultant to faculty and administrative groups as well as to trustees at a number of colleges and universities on issues relating to tuition and financial aid policies, faculty compensation policies, faculty retirement policies, and other budgetary, planning, and academic issues. Among the institutions he has worked with are Brandeis University, Oberlin College, Northeastern University, the University of North Carolina, the University of Chicago, Vanderbilt University, the U.S. Naval Academy, the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at the Rochester Institute of Technology, Smith College, the Suffolk University Law School, and Albany University (SUNY).


Robert S. Smith, the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, is also a professor in the school's Labor Economics Department. After receiving his PhD in Economics at Stanford University in 1971, he taught at the University of Connecticut and worked as an economist in the U.S. Department of Labor before coming to Cornell in 1974. He has authored numerous articles in the field of labor economics.

Professor Smith's research interests have centered on analyses of various labor market policies, especially those in the safety and health area. Most recently, he has served as co-principal investigator in the evaluation of the effects of two pilot programs in New York’s workers’ compensation program: one in the use of managed care and one in the use of alternative dispute resolution structures.

Professor Smith’s teaching has included the basic required labor economics courses for undergraduates and for students in the school’s professional master’s program. In 1999 he received the school’s General Mills Foundation Award for Innovation in Instruction.