12.2 The Supply of Labor LEARNING OBJECTIVES Explain the income and substitution effects of a wage change and how they affect the shape of the labor supply curve Discuss the factors that can cause the supply curve for labor to shift The demand for labor is one determinant of the equilibrium wage and equilibrium quantity of labor in a perfectly competitive market The supply of labor, of course, is the other Economists think of the supply of labor as a problem in which individuals weigh the opportunity cost of various activities that can fill an available amount of time and choose how to allocate it Everyone has 24 hours in a day There are lots of uses to which we can put our time: we can raise children, work, sleep, play, or participate in volunteer efforts To simplify our analysis, let us assume that there are two ways in which an individual can spend his or her time: in work or in leisure Leisure is a type of consumption good; individuals gain utility directly from it Work provides income that, in turn, can be used to purchase goods and services that generate utility The more work a person does, the greater his or her income, but the smaller the amount of leisure time available An individual who chooses more leisure time will earn less income than would otherwise be possible There is thus a tradeoff between leisure and the income that can be earned from work We can think of the supply of labor as the flip side of the Attributed to Libby Rittenberg and Timothy Tregarthen Saylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/books/ Saylor.org 641