Italy

This course aims at providing the basic theoretical and applied tools for a rigorous statistical analysis. Specifically, the course focuses on techniques to summarize and visualize data of different types and their possible relations, as well as on basic sampling and inferential procedures, and on the assessment of the risk associated to extrapolation and inference. In particular, students learn how to extract information from data and how to assess the reliability of such information. The course covers the following topics: collection, management, and summary of data using frequency distributions, graphical representations, and summaries; study of the relationship between two variables; statistical inference and sampling variability; theory of point estimation and confidence intervals; hypothesis testing; and simple and multiple regression models. All the descriptive and inferential tools introduced during the course are applied to data using the statistical software R - and in particular the integrated development environment (IDE) RStudio. Prerequisites: understanding of the concepts of probability theory and random variables.

This course is an introduction to labor economics. The course objective is to understand how labor markets operate and how they are affected by institutions and labor market policies. Both empirical evidence and standard theory are covered. The course highlights the effects on efficiency and the redistributive properties of institutions operating in imperfect labor markets, subject to market failures. This provides three reasons for the existence of institutions: i) remedying market failures, ii) achieving some redistribution, and iii) remedying potential negative side effects of other institutions. The course consists of 14 key lectures. The first lecture set up the stage by introducing workers’ labor supply, firms' labor demand, the labor market equilibrium and the institutional wedges. Lecture 2 through 14 deal with specific institutions and have the same setup: a description of the institution, some cross-country comparisons, theory in perfect and imperfect labor markets, empirical evidence on the effects of this institution, interactions with other institutions, and policy issues. The four lecture topics are: overview; minimum wages; unions and collective bargaining; antidiscrimination legislation; regulation of working hours; early retirement plans; family policies; education and training; migration policies; employment protection legislation; regulations on self-employment; unemployment benefits and active labor market policies; health related labor policies; and payroll taxes.

The course develops students’ skills in understanding, analyzing, and interpreting financial statements. Conceptually, the course emphasizes that producers and users of financial statements have different objectives and informational needs. At the same time, the course is applied in that it teaches students how to analyze actual financial statements data to make informed business decisions and assessments. The course is designed to broaden and deepen students’ conceptual and technical understanding of accounting as it is used for management purposes. The emphasis in the course is on financial controls, which provides the dominant form of control in the vast majority of decentralized organizations. This module provides support in business decisions, evaluation of organizational performance, or in evaluation of others (and/or be evaluated) through the use of financial and non-financial information. Course topics include understanding financial statements; fundamental analysis; growth strategy and financial tensions: the logic behind target setting; market based measures, ESG, and integrated reporting; management and control; financial responsibility; incentive systems; remedy to the myopia problem; and uncontrollable factors.

This course provides a comprehensive understanding of psychoanalytic theory, including the structural model, object relations theory, and self-psychology. The course develops knowledge of psychic conflict, unconscious processes, and the interpretation of dreams. The course provides skills in understanding transference and countertransference and analyzing contemporary applications of psychoanalysis. The course includes an introduction to psychoanalysis including an overview of psychanalytic model and its historical development. The course reviews the Topographic model including an analysis of unconscious processes and their influence on thoughts, emotions, and behavior; working on dreams; and the Oedipus Complex. The course discusses the Structural model including an understanding the structure of the mind, including the id, ego, and superego, and the stages of psychosexual development; psychic conflict and compromise; and an introduction to defense mechanisms and their role in psychological processes. The course reviews the object relations theory including an introduction to object relations theory and its contribution to psychoanalytic understanding, and an analysis of the role of attachment, separation-individuation processes. The course also discusses self-psychology and narcissistic personality with a focus on Heinz Kohut perspective, and the contemporary application of psychoanalysis, and its use in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) field.

This course consists of an Italian theater workshop for international students which meets for two hours twice a week, and is taught by an Italian theater director. Activities include: basic theatrical training, co-creation of an Italian text, rehearsals, and a final performance at the end of the semester. The course is for students with little to no previous background in Italian language.

The aim of the course is twofold. First, the course provides a toolkit to identify, model, and reason through strategic interactions (such as business strategies, negotiations, etc.) and discusses how to apply this toolkit when designing strategic environments (such as auctions, competitions, teamwork, etc.). Second, and in the interdisciplinary spirit of the program, the course illustrates the ability of mathematics in modeling, analyzing, and understanding real-world social as well as business interactions. Course topics include: what is Game Theory, static and multistage games of complete and incomplete information, signaling and repeated games, mechanism design, Bayesian and dominant-strategy incentive compatibility, efficient mechanisms, auctions, and applications of the theory. Prerequisites: Ability to complete rigorous mathematical proofs.

This provides students with an understanding of the nature and structure of the disclosures that an acquirer must make when proposing a merger with a target. Particular attention is paid to data that is useful for valuation purposes when trying to appraise a target with a view to developing a target identification methodology. Course topics include the anatomy of a typical merger – mini case study; overview of Mergers Analysis – methods to identify prospective targets using financial statements; brief outline of US and European financial reporting requirements; required filings to raising finance to publicly fund transactions; obtaining a purchase price and creating a Pro Forma Valuation; special topic on fair values, goodwill, and intangibles valuation; applied examples; constructing projections including accretion and dilution; and ex-post analysis of deals. Prerequisites for the course: introductory level accounting.

This course gives students the opportunity to improve their ability to build and manage constructive relationships and to get to high value added results managing not only their own, but also other people's performance. The determinants of optimal performance, that is competence, motivation, and positive psychological states, are explored with the aim of both improving the ability to engage oneself and the people they are working with, and the effectiveness when managing problem/underperforming people. Leadership skills gives students the opportunity to reflect and act upon change: change is one of the relevant dimensions of leadership and becoming a leader requires students to go through a personal and professional transition. This course provides the resources needed to specifically manage the transition from Individual Contributor to Manager, encouraging a greater self-awareness and therefore increased effectiveness. This course covers the main theories of leadership: trait, situational approach, transactional, transformational and charismatic leadership; the dark side of leadership. It also covers leadership skills: influence, integration of differences, compelling communication, leading for excellent performance. Other topics covered include: designing and leading teams; minorities, women, and leadership; organizational culture and leadership in multicultural environments. Prerequisites: Basic knowledge of organizational behavior.

This course deals with psychological phenomena, biases, and socially-oriented behavior that affect economically relevant decisions of people. The main focus is on what economists have learned from various experiments, as well as the methodology of answering questions by the means of an experiment. In order to understand better the motivation and contribution of experimental works, the course reviews the structure and predictions of standard models in Microeconomics and discusses the ways in which they are modified or extended to incorporate psychological theory and empirical findings. Students who have preparation in Calculus, Statistics, Econometrics, and Intermediate Microeconomics benefit from the course the most. Lack of background knowledge in one of these disciplines increases the amount of work that students need to do to keep up with their peers.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. This course examines: the conceptual and theoretical foundations of cybercrime research; the cutting edge empirical research on cybercrimes; the main tools and practices related to the prevention and countering of cybercrimes, and to their harm mitigation; the social challenges and implications of digitalization and datafication in the context of cybercrime research and investigations; and develops an approach to cybercrimes that recognizes the cross-disciplinary nature of the area. The course discusses topics including approaching and researching crime in cyberspace; crimes against devices; crime against persons; crimes of deception and coercion; intellectual property infringement; market-based crimes; political offences; cyberterrorism and radicalization; information pollution; disrupting and preventing cybercrimes; crimes of the present, crimes of the future; and researching crime in cyberspace.