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Using Illustrations from American Novelsto Teach about Labor MarketsMichelle Albert Vachris a & Cecil E. Bohanon ba Christopher Newport Universityb Ball State UniversityPublished online: 18 Jan 2012.

To cite this article: Michelle Albert Vachris & Cecil E. Bohanon (2012) Using Illustrations fromAmerican Novels to Teach about Labor Markets, The Journal of Economic Education, 43:1, 72-82, DOI:10.1080/00220485.2012.636712

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THE JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC EDUCATION, 43(1), 72–82, 2012Copyright C© Taylor & Francis Group, LLCISSN: 0022-0485 print/2152-4068 onlineDOI: 10.1080/00220485.2012.636712

ECONOMIC INSTRUCTION

Using Illustrations from American Novels to Teach aboutLabor Markets

Michelle Albert Vachris and Cecil E. Bohanon

This article illustrates how literature can bring models to life in undergraduate courses on labormarket economics. The authors argue that economics instructors and students can benefit from evensmall doses of literature. The authors examine excerpts from five American novels: Sister Carrie byTheodore Drieser (1900/2005); The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (1939/1967); McTeague: AStory 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 fivelabor 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

In this article, we make a case for using literature in classes on labor market economics. Whilewe focus on labor market theory, we suspect that such linkages between economic topics andliterary illustrations are pervasive. We offer a number of suggestions as to how to incorporateliterature well into upper division economics courses and provide examples from five Americannovels: Sister Carrie by Theodore Drieser (1900); The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck(1939/1967); McTeague: A Story of San Francisco by Frank Norris (1899/2006); Moby Dickby Herman Melville (1852/2003), and Seraph on the Suwanee by Zora Neale Hurston (1948).1

Excerpts from Sister Carrie and The Grapes of Wrath, in which there are prolonged job searchesby the characters, wonderfully illustrate the economic model of job search. In contrast, the jobsearches described in McTeague are affected more by luck than by informational asymmetries.

Michelle Albert Vachris is a professor of economics at Christopher Newport University (e-mail: mvachris@cnu.edu)and the corresponding author. Cecil E. Bohanon is a professor of economics at Ball State University (e-mail:cbohanon@bsu.edu).

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

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Excerpts from Moby Dick and Seraph on the Suwanee are used to illustrate the economic theoryof discrimination.

Previous work has examined the economics presented in some of these novels. Watts (2003)has used The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck 1939/1967) to explain limits on worker mobility withthe example of the tenant farmers’ attachment to the land. He also uses an example from SisterCarrie (Drieser 1900/2005) to illustrate Adam Smith’s idea that the degree of specializationis limited by market size. Bohanon (2007) explores the theme of prudence versus passion inMoby Dick (Melville 1852/2003) to provide insights into how passion can overcome prudence indecision making by people in groups. Economists have also used literary works other than thoseexamined here to explore issues relevant to labor markets. Watts (2003) examines the supply anddemand factors that determine wages in Krakauer’s Into Thin Air and Junger’s The Perfect Storm.

While these labor market concepts usually would not be covered in principles courses, theytypically appear in textbooks used for labor market economics. Why use literature to teach theseconcepts? The use of literature by economists has been reviewed by Watts and Smith (1989)and Watts (1999), who found that economics concepts and models often appear in literature.These authors provide convincing arguments that literary examples can be used to improve theteaching of economics, although to our knowledge, no empirical testing of this outcome has beenattempted. The appendix of Watts and Smith (1989) is especially useful for instructors wishingto incorporate literature into their classes as it contains a listing of excerpts that could be usedalong with the economic content illustrated. Watts (2003) provides an anthology of excerptsorganized along the lines of a textbook on principles of economics, and Vachris (2007) describesthe delivery of a general education course on economics and literature that uses the Watts (2003)anthology as the primary textbook. While the economics literature outlined above focuses onprinciples-level courses, literature also can be used to supplement upper-level field courses, suchas labor market economics. Since so much of our lives are spent in the workplace, it is only naturalthat many novelists write about labor market experiences, providing many excerpts that may beused to illustrate theory. We do not propose teaching a whole course on labor market economicsin literature, but rather offer examples and suggestions for incorporating literature in small doses.It is also our hope that these examples will inspire other instructors to compile passages that canbe used in other courses.

Before incorporating literature into the teaching of economics, it is important to consider thepotential costs and benefits. Watts (1999) points out that the costs include the fact that time spentreading and discussing literature is time not spent covering other topics in the course. The mostimportant benefit of adding literature to the economics curriculum is the potential for increasedstudent learning and retention. To the best of our knowledge, there is no empirical evidencethat specifically indicates that the use of literature in economics promotes these ends. However,general research on learning suggests that literature could increase learning and retention ifproperly utilized. Bransford, Brown, and Cocking (2000) describe how learning and retentionare increased by the use of memorable, interesting, and captivating stories. Watts (2003, xxii)highlights that use of literature adds variety to the economics classroom, and there is muchresearch indicating that learning is enhanced by variety (see Halpern and Hakel 2003). Watts(ibid.) goes on to explain that if students are required to interpret economic theory with narrativesin addition to the traditional mathematical and graphical presentations, this may help increasetheir verbal communication skills. Finally, the use of literature in economics pedagogy maypromote the interdisciplinary and integrative goals of a liberal education.

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LABOR MARKET THEORY IN AMERICAN NOVELS

Novels are particularly good sources for examples relating to labor market economics becausemany characters experience job searches and discrimination. While most labor market economicstextbooks include mathematical and graphical presentations of the job search model and theeconomic theory of discrimination, literature can provide a way to bring these theories to life.While a complete summary of the current labor market theory of job search and discrimination isbeyond the scope of this article, we include a brief overview of the basic models before describinghow they are illustrated in our sample of novels.

Economists use the tools of supply and demand to describe outcomes in labor markets.Households make up the supply side of the market, offering their skills for sale. A worker’s skillset is referred to as “human capital” as one’s skills are the tools by which one earns a living.Workers choose to spend their time at labor (which earns income) and at leisure (which does not)and will only enter the labor market if they can earn at least their “reservation wage,” defined asthe value they place on forgone household production and leisure time.

On the demand side of the market, employers offer compensation to workers based on theworkers’ marginal revenue product and will hire workers up to the point where the marginalfactor cost is equal to the marginal revenue product. Generally, workers will want to work morefor higher pay because the cost of not working increases with the wage.2 In contrast, employerswill want to hire fewer workers as the wage increases (because less profit will be made aswages increase). The combination of the forces of supply and demand determines the equilibriumoutcome in the labor market. If wages and other forms of compensation are flexible and if laboris mobile, then labor markets can clear, and there will be no unemployment.

Generally, though, labor markets do not clear as predicted by the abovementionedsupply–demand model of employment. One explanation for the existence of unemploymentcan be found in the model of job search, where information available to employers and potentialemployees is less than perfect. Unlike the market for a relatively homogenous commodity, suchas wheat, where price, quality, and transportation information can be accessed in seconds so thatbuyer and seller activities can be almost instantaneously coordinated, labor markets are charac-terized by heterogeneity on both sides of the market so that time-intensive searching by marketparticipants on both sides is warranted.

The basic search model of employment that has its roots in Stigler (1961, 1962) incorporatesthis reality into its framework. As is the case in all markets, information in labor markets iscostly to obtain. Job searchers and employers will only acquire information (will only keepsearching) until the marginal benefit of obtaining the information is equal to the marginal cost.On the supply side of the market, workers weigh the expected benefit against the expected costof shopping around for a better wage offer. The benefit of searching is the possibility that alonger search will result in finding a better wage offer. Search costs include explicit costs suchas transportation to job interviews and the implicit cost, or the opportunity cost of time spent insearching.

Most search models include the concept of “stopping” as opposed to “shopping” (Mortensen1986, 853). Instead of obtaining the sample of job offers all at once for comparison, job searchersreceive offers sequentially. As each job offer is received, the searcher must determine whether toaccept the offer (“stop”) or keep searching. Searchers will accept offers which are greater than orequal to their reservation wages, which are set such that the expected costs of longer periods of

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unemployment are just equal to the benefits of higher postunemployment wages (McCall 1970,116).

The reservation wage can change over time and is predicted to fall as the duration of unemploy-ment increases (Mortensen 1986, 861) because job searchers adjust their associated expectationsof costs and benefits of additional searching. One reason for this pattern is that as the job searchdrags on, searchers (who are assumed to be liquidity-constrained) begin to run out of money tofund the search. In addition, a long period of unemployment erodes the searcher’s confidencethat a higher wage can be found. The reservation wage thus falls over time until the reservationwage reaches the value of leisure, that is, the minimum wage required to entice the worker intothe labor force. At that point the worker drops out of the labor force (the “discouraged worker”effect). The equilibrium amount of “search unemployment” is reached when the expected benefitof the search equals the expected cost at the margin (Mortensen 1970, 848).

On the demand side, a similar search problem exists as firms must identify potential employees.Firms not only incur hiring costs in identifying workers, but also must “process” or train workersafterwards (Stigler 1962, 102). Firms can reduce the cost of hiring and training by offering higherwages because higher wages lead to less turnover and attract a higher quality applicant pool.Wages set above the market-clearing level may in the short run lead to unemployment.

Discrimination in labor markets is a topic that can spark a great deal of controversy in a labormarket course. Students often come to the course with strong opinions on the subject and mayhave experienced or observed discrimination themselves. The use of examples from literaturemay provide students with a more distanced way to discuss such a hot topic. The basic economictheory of discrimination in labor markets has its roots in Becker (1957). Since information aboutthe productivity of heterogeneous workers is costly to obtain, employers may rely on shorthandsthat are imperfect proxies for productivity. Some of these proxies may take the form of invidiousdiscrimination based on gender, creed, or race. If individual worker productivity can be discoveredat low costs, the exercise of these kinds of prejudices is likely reduced. Further, the Becker modelillustrates how competitive markets may help reduce nonstatistical discrimination because firmsindulging in a taste for discrimination will be outperformed by firms that do not.

We next turn to examples from several American novels that can be used in the classroom toillustrate or contradict the theories described above. We provide examples for five labor marketthemes: (1) reservation wages and the supply of labor, (2) surplus labor and low wages, (3)the 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).

RESERVATION WAGES AND THE SUPPLY OF LABORIN SISTER CARRIE

Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser (1900/2005) describes the city life in Chicago during theIndustrial Revolution. The job search model is relevant to the labor market experiences of twoof the main characters in the novel: Carrie Meeber and George W. Hurstwood. Small-town girlCarrie arrives in Chicago to pursue her big-city dreams, but is quickly beaten down by the realitiesof the labor market there. Carrie’s initial expectations about the duration of her job search and herreservation wage are determined by her relatives. As her brother-in-law says, “It’s a big place.You can get in somewhere in a few days. Everybody does” (Dreiser 1900/2005, 12). Her sister

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expects that Carrie would find a job paying about $5.00 per week to begin with, but Carrie fullyexpects to be offered $6.00 per week. With these high expectations and low human capital, anunsure Carrie sets out alone to find work in the “vast wholesale and shopping district to whichthe uninformed seeker for work usually drifted” (ibid., 16). Time after time she is told that onlypeople with experience are hired—a catch-22 that many new entrants to the labor force encounter.Finally she receives her first offer, for $3.50 per week as a seamstress in an unpleasant factoryfilled with, in Carrie’s opinion, “the lowest order of shop girls” (ibid., 24). Clearly this offer fallswell short of her reservation wage, and Carrie does not want to work here, but she is encouragedby the fact that an offer has been made. “Surely Chicago was not so bad if she could find oneplace in one day. She might find another and better later” (ibid., 25). She spends the rest of theafternoon searching in vain, and on the way home begrudgingly accepts an offer for $4.50 perweek at a shoe factory even though it nets her only 50 cents after paying for room and board.

Carrie again enters the labor force later in the novel when she finds herself in New York with herhusband Hurstwood. Once it becomes apparent that the unemployed Hurstwood cannot supportthe household, Carrie embarks on an acting career. After learning that she needs more experiencethan she gained from her role in an amateur play from several years back and that agents foractresses require an up-front finder’s fee, Carrie looks for work as a chorus girl, expecting to earnbetween $12 and $14 per week. After several weeks she finds a spot paying $12 per week, whichmatches her expectations. That she could find such rewarding work in such a short time makesher question why her husband has not been able to find work with long months of searching.Carrie’s talent is quickly noticed, and she moves up in the chorus line, with an associated increasein her wage. Her increased experience enables her to find subsequent positions in other shows ateven higher pay.

Carrie’s rise in the novel is juxtaposed against the fall of her husband, Hurstwood. When Carriefirst meets Hurstwood, he manages an upper-crust saloon and is described as “a very successfuland well-known man about town” and as “someone worth knowing” (ibid., 41). He had achievedhis current managerial position “by perseverance and industry, through long years of service, fromthe position of barkeeper in a commonplace saloon to his present altitude” (ibid., 41). His jobsearch begins after a series of events leads him to steal a large sum of money from his employersand flee under an assumed name, with Carrie, to New York. Stripped of his long and prestigiousresume in an attempt to avoid prosecution, he has great difficulty in achieving his former status.Even if he were willing to reveal his former experience, his Chicago reputation would not easilytransfer to New York. “Whatever a man like Hurstwood could be in Chicago, it is very evidentthat he would be but an inconspicuous drop in an ocean like New York” (ibid., 260).

Hurstwood’s reservation wage is initially set at $150 per month, enough for a comfortableliving. While his position in Chicago did not involve any financial stake in the business, theopportunities in New York involve buying a stake in an existing establishment. After weeding outmany disreputable saloons, he is offered a one-third stake in “the stock, fixtures and goodwill” ofa resort in exchange for $1000 and his managerial expertise (ibid., 265). In accepting this offer heexpects to earn about $100 per month, indicating that his reservation wage has fallen as predictedby the job search model. By the second year, though, his business increases, and he succeeds inearning $150 per month.

The various job searches depicted in Sister Carrie can be seen as illustrations of the job searchmodel. Both Carrie and Hurstwood start out their searches with a reservation wage that theycompare to the offers they receive. As each job offer is received, they must use the information

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they obtain in the job search to determine whether to accept the offer (“stop”) or keep searching.As the job searches drag on, they begin to run out of money to fund the searches, and theylose confidence that a better offer will be found, and thus their reservation wage declines. Whenthe reservation wage approaches the value of leisure (in Hurstwood’s case) or when they findalternative means of support (in Carrie’s case), they drop out of the labor force.

SURPLUS LABOR AND LOW WAGES IN THE GRAPES OF WRATH

John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath (1939/1967) provides a detailed description of job searchesexperienced by some of the very poorest workers during the Great Depression. One of the themespromoted in the novel is the powerlessness of the individual and the power of the collective.“This is the beginning—from ‘I’ to ‘we’“ (Steinbeck 1939/1967, 156). The novel juxtaposesthe power of collective groups such as farming associations, unions, and families against smallfarmers, individual workers, and loners. The tale follows the Joad family as they leave their tenantfarming way of life in Oklahoma and head west to California in search of employment. Withlittle human capital and no prospect for employment in Oklahoma, the Joads pin their hopes onjob opportunities for fruit picking in California described in handbills that circulate the area. Theflyers advertise plenty of jobs at high wages.

During the arduous trek to the West, the Joads encounter other families going in the oppo-site direction—leaving California after unsuccessful job searches. Even before their arrival inCalifornia, it becomes obvious that there are many more looking for work than there are jobsand that as a result, wages are low and decreasing. The oversupply of labor and resulting lowwages are described in the novel as being caused by the Farmers Association, which colludes tooveradvertise the jobs.

This fella wants eight hundred men. So he prints up five thousand of them things [handbills] . . . an’maybe two-three thousan’ folks gets movin account a this here handbill. . . . You see now? The morefellas he can get, an’ the hungrier, less he’s gonna pay. (196)

As the Joads observe hordes of migrant workers living in camps (Hoovervilles) and lookingfor work, their hopes and their reservation wages drop significantly. Nonetheless, they continueon the journey because they have nothing to return to back in Oklahoma. In California, changesin the supply of labor influence the wage expected and paid. One such example is found on apeach farm where workers had gone on strike after being offered a wage lower than the price ofleisure.

We come to work there. They says it’s gonna be fi’ cents. . . . We got there an’ they says they’repayin’ two an’ a half cents. A fella can’t even eat on that, an if he got kids—So we says we won’ttake it. So they druv us off. An’ all the cops in the worl’ come down on us. Now they’re payin’ youfive. When they bust this here strike—ya think they’ll pay five? (398)

Sure enough, once the strike is broken, the wage offer drops back to two and a half cents perbox of peaches picked. And with “two hundred men coming from the South that’ll be glad toget it” (ibid., 410), the workers’ reservation wage drops even lower. By the end of the novel, theJoads end their search for employment, dropping out of the labor force as discouraged workers,and instead focus on searching merely for shelter from the rains.

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The predictions of the job search model as well as the supply and demand model of labormarkets are well illustrated in The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck 1939/1967). The Joads begin theirjob search thinking of California as a paradise where it is “[n]ever cold. An’ fruit ever’place,an’ people just bein’ in the nicest places, little white houses among the orange trees” (ibid.,93). However reservation wages plummet very quickly and the oversupply of labor pushes downwages offered. With the throngs of migrants leaving the Dust Bowl for California, the paradisesought is never found.

DEMAND FOR LABOR AND MARGINAL PRODUCTIVITY IN MOBY DICK

Herman Melville’s classic novel Moby Dick (1852/2003) is predicated on a labor market search.Its protagonist, Ishmael, is searching for adventure by signing up for a whaling voyage. He isjoined by a friend, Queequeg, a pagan-savage from the South Seas. Queegueg authorizes Ishmaelto find him a ship to sign up for. After making a tentative choice for the Pequod, Ishmael then entersinto the negotiation with the two owners of the ship for his terms of compensation. He reveals,to the readers, his knowledge of the nature of worker compensation in the whaling industry:

I was already aware that in the whaling business they paid no wages; but all hands, including thecaptain, received certain shares of the profits called lays, and that these lays were proportioned to thedegree of importance pertaining to the respective duties of the ship’s company. I was also aware thatbeing a green hand at whaling, my own lay would not be very large; (35)

Ishmael ends up negotiating a 1/300th lay, not quite as much as he had hoped for, 1/275th, butmore than first offered, 1/777th. When Queequeg seeks employment the next day, the provincialprejudices of the Quaker owners of the Pequod come to light. They initially refuse to offeremployment to him because of his non-Christian status. However, Queequeg quickly demonstrateshis marginal product:

Without saying a word, Queequeg, in his wild sort of way, jumped upon the bulwarks, from thenceinto the bows of one of the whale-boats hanging to the side; and then bracing his left knee, and poisinghis harpoon, cried out in some such way as this:—Cap’ain, you see him small drop tar on water dere?You see him? well, spose him one whale eye, well, den!” and taking sharp aim at it, he darted theiron right over old Bildad’s broad brim, clean across the ship’s decks, and struck the glistening tarspot out of sight. Now,” said Queequeg, quietly hauling in the line, “spos-ee him whale-e eye; why,dad whale dead.” “Quick, Bildad,” said Peleg, his partner, who, aghast at the close vicinity of theflying harpoon, had retreated towards the cabin gangway. “Quick, I say, you Bildad, and get the ship’spapers. We must have Hedgehog there, I mean Quohog, in one of our boats. Look ye, Quohog, we’llgive ye the ninetieth lay, and that’s more than ever was given a harpooneer yet out of Nantucket”(41)

These passages illustrate how the compensation to Ishmael and Queequeg differ because of theirdifferent marginal products.

THE ECONOMIC THEORY OF DISCRIMINATION IN MOBY DICKAND SERAPH ON THE SUWANEE

The above passage is also an excellent way to illustrate through literature the implication ofthe Becker model of taste for discrimination. Greed trumps provincial prejudice. Melville’s

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(1852/2003) anecdote is consistent with research by Craig and Knoeber (1992) and Craig andFearn (1993) indicating a wide range of ethnic identities on American whaling ships.

In a similar vein, the celebrated black female writer Zora Neale Hurston’s 1948 novel Serpahon the Suwanee notes the absence of race-based discrimination in a sea-faring industry; in thiscase, shrimp fishing off the Florida coast. The novel is set in Florida in the first half of thetwentieth century, when legal and social segregation between blacks and whites was very muchin place. The novel’s protagonist, Jim Meserve, a white Southern entrepreneur, is introducing hiswife Arvay to his shrimping fleet.

. . . a husky Negro around twenty-five was in command of the Kenny M. Arvay was surprised at that,but soon learned it was a common thing. There were as many if not more colored captains as white. Itwas who could go out there and come back with the shrimp. And nobody thought anything about it.White and Negro captains were friendly together and compared notes. Some boats had mixed crews.(284, italics added)

This passage is consistent with the Beckerian notion that economic productivity can trumpprovincial prejudices in markets where worker productivity is measurable at low cost.

SEARCH VERSUS RANDOM MATCHING: A CRITIQUEOF NEOCLASSICAL LABOR THEORY IN McTEAGUE

Frank Norris’s novel McTeague: A Story of San Francisco (1899/2006) is a depressing tragedyabout a brutish man who is a practicing dentist in San Francisco in the 1890s. It coucheseconomic gain and employment search in a light quite different from the novels described above.Dr. McTeague, or Mac, as he is called by everyone in the novel, falls in love and marries Trina.Prior to their marriage, Trina buys a $1 lottery ticket that wins a $5000 cash prize. Trina investsthe sum with a wealthy uncle who pays her a 6 percent annual dividend in monthly installmentsof $25. Trina also makes handcrafted animals for Noah Ark sets, which she sells through her richuncle, earning an additional $14 a month. Income figures from McTeague’s dentistry practice arenever revealed in the novel.

In Norris’s view, wealth is a by-product of luck or accidental skills—not prudence or rationalcalculations. Trina’s $5000 lottery winning is the primary source of the novel’s tragedy. Trinais irrationally miserly about it, and Mac’s animal nature is exacerbated by his desire for it. ThatNorris is using lottery winnings as a metaphor for success in a market is rather obvious.

While the lottery metaphor is central to Norris’s economic views, his description of labormarkets also reflects his perspective that favorable economic outcomes are arbitrary. Althoughinternally consistent, there is little in Norris that is consonant with a modern labor market searchmodel. Not only was Trina’s lottery winning a matter of luck, her access to a favorable rate ofreturn and an outlet for her craft work was the by-product of a wealthy uncle. Moreover, hercarving skills are the result of a genetic inheritance in the author’s words of “some worsted-leggined wood-carver of the Tyrol, had handed down the talent of the national industry” (Norris1899/2006, 71).

McTeague’s (Norris 1899/2006) experiences are also the product of happenstance. His acqui-sition of human capital, described early in the novel, is the by-product of his mother who packed

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Mac off at an unspecified early age with a mine-camp dentist who was “more or less a charla-tan. . . . ” (ibid., 3). Mac’s knowledge of dentistry was “learnt after a fashion mostly by watchingthe charlatan operate.” Upon his mother’s death, Mac “inherits enough to set him up a business. . . ” (ibid., 3). There is little intentional acquisition of human capital or any entrepreneurial spiritby Mac; rather his initial success is a result of bumbling coincidence.

When deprived of his business due to a state edict forbidding nondental school graduates frompracticing dentistry, the author opines, “McTeague was over thirty now, sluggish and slow-wittedat best. What new trade could he learn at this age?” (ibid., 138). McTeague does find a job at amanufacturer of dental equipment, but in the author’s words by the “greatest good luck” (ibid.,148). When he loses this job, it is again on impersonal grounds of economic conditions: “timeswere getting hard an’ they had to let me go” (ibid., 149). After this, McTeague “made but twoattempts to secure a job” (ibid., 157). In the first case, Trina contacts her uncle to get Mac on athis business, but as the job requires “ciphering,” Mac is too stupid to hold down the job (ibid.,157). Also Mac has an opportunity to get a police job because a friend had “political pull,” butMcTeague does not pursue the lead because he is “too stupid” and “too listless” (ibid., 157).

Mac’s final job is a short-lived position as a miner. His penultimate job is, again, a product ofaccident. One morning, Mac saw a crew loading a piano. The piano fell and disabled one of themen. “An hour later McTeague had found his job. The music store engaged him as a handler atsix dollars a week. McTeague’s enormous strength, useless all his life, stood him in good steadat last” (ibid., 188). In contrast with the labor economist’s models, there is no deliberate andefficacious model of search in McTeague (Norris 1899/2006).

HOW TO USE THESE EXCERPTS TO TEACH LABORMARKET ECONOMICS

There are many ways to incorporate literature into the teaching of economics. Some instructorsassign whole novels to students and devote class time for discussions of the economic themes inthe novels. Others have the students read and analyze excerpts in class or incorporate excerptsinto lectures (for example, the reading of a passage from the novel). There is also the question ofwhether the students are exposed to the work of literature before or after the economic conceptsare covered in lectures. In all of these cases, care must be taken to ensure that the use of literatureenhances student learning rather than merely diverting scarce class time away from coverage ofeconomic content.

Our experience has shown that an efficient way to use literature to teach economics inupper-level classes is to first teach the students the basic model, for example, the simple model ofjob search. The students are then given an excerpt to read for a homework assignment in whichthey are asked to identify and discuss the economic concepts illustrated by the excerpt. In somecases, they can graphically illustrate the concepts present in the excerpt. The homework answersare then used in class to facilitate a discussion of the model. In some cases, students will not onlyfind the job search concepts in the excerpt, but may also find other economic concepts illustrated.

If the final exam is comprehensive and allows for an essay format, these excerpts makeexcellent final exam questions. Again students would be given an excerpt to read during the examand then be asked to write an essay identifying the labor market model and how it is illustrated bythe excerpt. For example, after covering the basic concept of marginal productivity of labor, most

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ILLUSTRATIONS FROM AMERICAN NOVELS 81

students can easily spout off the formula for calculating it, but having to explain the relationshipbetween Ishmael’s and Queequeg’s marginal productivities and compensation takes more thanjust rote skill. Likewise, analyzing Carrie’s desperate taking of the $4.50 per week job movesstudents beyond the mere definitional concept of a reservation wage.3

CONCLUSION

There is growing interest among economic educators in exploring alternative ways of deliveringeconomic content to students. There is also a small but growing movement in economics to-wards using works of literature to illustrate economic principles in economics courses. Althoughthe pervasiveness of the use of literature in economics courses and its effectiveness in promot-ing learning outcomes are both unknowns, research in the learning literature suggests that thewell-executed incorporated literary passage should augment learning goals. At the very least,incorporating literary works that spark an instructor’s passion for economics may have a positiveeffect on instruction.

This article offers several passages that could be used in an undergraduate course on labormarket economics that covers search models and models of employment discrimination. It alsooffers insights into how to use such passages over the course of a semester. A basic pointis that it is not very difficult for instructors to compile a set of literary passages that can beused to supplement their economics courses. One does not have to be a literary expert or evenremarkably well-read. Economics is everywhere, so instructors can find excerpts that poignantlyshow economic principles in action in works that they might normally read. We hope that thisarticle will stimulate more discussion, more examples, and more research on the use of literaturein economics pedagogy.

NOTES

1. Why these novels? We were initially inspired by a Liberty Fund Conference where we analyzed labormarket issues in Sister Carrie (Drieser 1900/2005) and McTeague (Norris 1899/2006). We then developedassignments 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 awage change.

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

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