What new tools and models can economists use to understand how individuals participate in labor markets? "Developments in Resarch Methods and Their Applications" (volume 4A) and "New Developments and Research on Labor Markets" (volume 4B) propose answers to this and other questions on important topics of public policy. By mixing conceptual models and empirical research, leading labor economists demonstrate how better data and advanced experiments help them apply economic theory, yielding sharper analyses and conclusions. Their chapters reveal how labor economists are developing new and innovative ways to measure key parameters and test important hypotheses. This title concentrates on empirical research in specific labor markets, including those defined by age, gender, and race. It documents how conceptual models and empirical work explain important practical issues. It demonstrates what these new tools and techniques can accomplish.

Reviews

"Labor economics" has continued to expand both in the extent and depth of coverage in recent years. Volume 4 of the Handbook has succeeded in not only updating coverage in many areas, but in synthesizing studies and approaches in ways that contribute importantly to the field. Economists with interests in many areas, ranging from field experiments to gender to early-life human capital investments, will benefit from the excellent chapters in this volume." -Jere R. Behrman, University of Pennsylvania "Volume 4 very nicely illustrates several important trends in labor economics: increased concern about proper research design, more contact with those in other social sciences, greater reliance on data collected by those conducting the research, and (in some areas) more productive interplay between theory and data. The authors have themselves been major contributors to these developments; they combine a participant's enthusiasm with a detached perspective on the challenges and gaps that remain." -Charles C. Brown, University of Michigan "The entries in the Handbook of Labor Economics update, deepen, and broaden the analyses contained in earlier volumes. The first-rate papers here address important problems in labor economics, often from new perspectives. As is the case with Volumes 1-3, many of the papers in volume 4 are "must-reads" and sure to make it onto graduate reading lists." -Henry Farber, Princeton University