Managing People

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This course introduces the economic foundations of management best practices for recruiting, retaining, and incentivizing a diverse and productive workforce. We will discuss key personnel policies using frontier economics research, including optimal pay setting, unionization, preventing workplace harassment, gender wage inequality, and hiring best practices, including how to avoid discrimination. This course is designed to be practical. Through case studies and analysis of real-life applications, we will address common questions managers face: How do I retain employees and help them succeed, and how does this vary by race and gender? How do I motivate effort? How will unionization impact my workplace and what is the impact on inequality? How will minimum wage changes impact my workplace and what is the impact on different groups of workers? How does promoting competition impact productivity and does it vary be the type of worker?