Spring 2027

Wages and the Labor Market

Examines economic and institutional forces determining labor supply/demand, covering wage theories, unemployment, labor mobility, and market functioning.

offering recorded3–4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Chao Fu3.9/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Chao FU

Students found exams challenging, noting they were harder than class practice or handouts and required a deeper understanding than repeat homework problems.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Describe and model how workers make labor supply decisions and how firms make labor demand decisions.

  • Classify how equilibrium outcomes and policy implications differ by types of labor markets.

  • Analyze and critique the presentation of labor-market-related issues in social media, news media, and policy debates.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

ECON 301 or 311

ECON 450

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.27/5 from 11 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 4.4/5 raw quality · 2.6/5 difficulty · 9 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Chao FU

Professor Chao Fu taught lectures with in-class exercises and homework; some students reported these materials closely reflected exams, while others found exams much harder than practice problems. Students who attended every lecture and completed the work independently reported earning an A, though others described the exams as challenging.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.04 GPA, 43.2% A/AB (n=37 letter grades); Spring 2025: 2.95 GPA, 48.7% A/AB (n=39 letter grades); Spring 2026: 2.97 GPA, 44.4% A/AB (n=45 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · Rasmus Lentz

Rasmus Lentz taught this course in past terms, describing problem sets as challenging but fair and lectures as helpful and humorous. Students found his tests difficult but similar to the homework, recommending his teaching style for its clarity and engagement with undergraduates.

CHAO FU is recorded teaching in Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JOHN KENNAN is recorded teaching in Fall 2007, Fall 2008. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

RASMUS LENTZ is recorded teaching in Spring 2007, Spring 2008, Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2017. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 500
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 500

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Chao FU

Professor Fu provides clear, logical explanations with detailed slides and in-class exercises that closely mirror the exams.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.04 GPA, 43.2% A/AB (n=37 letter grades); Spring 2025: 2.95 GPA, 48.7% A/AB (n=39 letter grades); Spring 2026: 2.97 GPA, 44.4% A/AB (n=45 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Chao FU

Students found exams challenging, noting they were harder than class practice or handouts and required a deeper understanding than repeat homework problems.

Past student reviews · Chao FU

One student found the textbook insufficient and lectures essential, while another reported that attending all lectures and completing exercises independently led to an A.

Topics

  • Labor supply and demand determinants
  • Wage theories and labor market functioning
  • Equilibrium outcomes and policy implications by labor market type

Skills

  • Modeling labor supply and demand decisions
  • Analyzing equilibrium outcomes and policy implications across labor market types
  • Critiquing labor-market issues in media and policy debates

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records
ECON 450 · Spring 2027

Wages and the Labor Market

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:296:005625",
    "course_id": "ECON 450",
    "course_uid": "course_91a1df85c82e29635060a630",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "005625",
    "source_subject_id": "296",
    "title": "Wages and the Labor Market",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "b7d48309e3163ddff5153bff3c774908a81a5850b4c64939244d4d57da84e836",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}