Using Illustrations from American Novels to Teach about Labor Markets

Abstract

This article illustrates how literature can bring models to life in undergraduate courses on labor market economics. The authors argue that economics instructors and students can benefit from even small doses of literature. The authors examine excerpts from five American novels: Sister Carrie by Theodore Drieser (1900/2005); The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (1939/1967); McTeague: A Story of San Francisco by Frank Norris (1899/2006); Moby Dick by Herman Melville (1852/2003); and Seraph on the Suwanee by Zora Neale Hurston (1948). Examples from these works cover five labor market themes: (1) reservation wages and the supply of labor, (2) surplus labor and low wages, (3) demand for labor and marginal productivity, (4) the economic model of discrimination, and (5) search versus random matching in labor markets (a critique of neoclassical labor theory).

Keywords:

• economics and literature
• job search model
• labor market theory
• teaching pedagogy

JEL codes:

• A22
• J64

Acknowledgments

This article is based on a paper that was presented at the National Conference on Teaching Economics held at Stanford University on June 1–3, 2011.

Notes

1. Why these novels? We were initially inspired by a Liberty Fund Conference where we analyzed labor market issues in Sister Carrie (Drieser 1900/2005) and McTeague (Norris 1899/2006). We then developed assignments from these and other novels with strong labor market themes.

2. This prediction depends on the assumption that substitution effects outweigh the income effects of a wage change.

3. A sample of homework assignments and essay exam questions based on the excerpts is available to any interested reader on request to the authors.