Skip to ContentGo to accessibility pageKeyboard shortcuts menu
OpenStax Logo

12.

What determines the demand for labor for a firm operating in a perfectly competitive output market?

13.

What determines the demand for labor for a firm with market power in the output market?

14.

What is a perfectly competitive labor market?

15.

What is a labor union?

16.

Why do employers have a natural advantage in bargaining with employees?

17.

What are some of the most important laws that protect employee rights?

18.

How does the presence of a labor union change negotiations between employers and workers?

19.

What is the long-term trend in American union membership?

20.

Would you expect the presence of labor unions to lead to higher or lower pay for worker-members? Would you expect a higher or lower quantity of workers hired by those employers? Explain briefly.

21.

What are the main causes for the recent trends in union membership rates in the United States? Why are union rates lower in the United States than in many other developed countries?

22.

What is a monopsony?

23.

What is the marginal cost of labor?

24.

How does monopsony affect the equilibrium wage and employment levels?

25.

What is a bilateral monopoly?

26.

How does a bilateral monopoly affect the equilibrium wage and employment levels compared to a perfectly competitive labor market?

27.

Describe how the earnings gap between men and women has evolved in recent decades.

28.

Describe how the earnings gap between Black and White people has evolved in recent decades.

29.

Does a gap between the average earnings of men and women, or between White and Black people, prove that employers are discriminating in the labor market? Explain briefly.

30.

Will a free market tend to encourage or discourage discrimination? Explain briefly.

31.

What policies, when used together with antidiscrimination laws, might help to reduce the earnings gap between men and women or between White and Black workers?

32.

Describe how affirmative action is applied in the labor market.

33.

What factors can explain the relatively small effect of low-skilled immigration on the wages of low-skilled workers?

34.

Have levels of immigration to the United States been relatively high or low in recent years? Explain.

35.

How would you expect immigration by primarily low-skill workers to affect American low-skilled workers?

Order a print copy

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Citation/Attribution

This book may not be used in the training of large language models or otherwise be ingested into large language models or generative AI offerings without OpenStax's permission.

Want to cite, share, or modify this book? This book uses the Creative Commons Attribution License and you must attribute OpenStax.

Attribution information
  • If you are redistributing all or part of this book in a print format, then you must include on every physical page the following attribution:
    Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/principles-microeconomics-3e/pages/1-introduction
  • If you are redistributing all or part of this book in a digital format, then you must include on every digital page view the following attribution:
    Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/principles-microeconomics-3e/pages/1-introduction
Citation information

© Jan 23, 2024 OpenStax. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License . The OpenStax name, OpenStax logo, OpenStax book covers, OpenStax CNX name, and OpenStax CNX logo are not subject to the Creative Commons license and may not be reproduced without the prior and express written consent of Rice University.