University of Commerce Luigi Bocconi

This course examines a new topic in modern art each time it is offered. Visit the Bocconi University course catalog for the current course topic. In spring 2023-24, the course focused on the visual representation of the human body in art. The course studies the visual representations of the human body in many guises: aesthetic, political, social, cultural, and erotic among others. It analyses the different strategies that artists deployed to develop rhetorics of the body both physical and emotional. This course proposes a dynamic approach of the body in art considered as a focus of a composition, an object of investigation, a locus of gender and racial understanding, a vehicle for physical and emotional experience, the cornerstone of our creative power and ability.  Students learn to visually and historically analyze works of art from various periods, the human body being the basis of visual representations and an object of aesthetic investigation; understand and be able to deploy in their own words major theoretical approaches used to interpret works of art; discuss the relationships between the real and the represented body through works of art conceived as the occasion, the site, and the condition of a process of historical, social and cultural construction.  The course includes visits to local museums, namely the Pinacoteca di Brera and the Museo Poldi-Pezzoli.

The course covers the basics of corporate finance from a big picture and value enhancing perspective. The course has three main objectives: (1) Develop an understanding of the tools that are used to value investment projects and companies (valuation); (2) Understand the basic issues involved in how firms should raise funds for their investments (financing); (3) Evaluate how investment and financing decisions are related. Emphasis is placed on applying the theoretical framework of corporate finance to real world problems. Prerequisites: Understanding of basic economic and statistical concepts, familiarity with time value of money, financial statements analysis, discounted cash flow analysis, risk-return trade-off, and diversification.

By combining the study of European economic history and the study of the history of economic thought, the course addresses the major economic, industrial, and financial transformations in the Early Modern and Modern periods in relation to their socio-cultural, political, and intellectual contexts. The module on the history of economic thought puts economic theory in historical perspective, by showing the variety of conceptual and interpretative frameworks through which major authors have approached basic economic issues. The course provides direct access to the main sources in the modern history of economic thought by encouraging students to question the very foundations of economic thought, in particular the notions of need, exchange, division of labor, and the market. By drawing attention to the socio-cultural, political, and intellectual contexts in which economic change occurs, the module on economy history does not address the economic transformation of European societies as the history of consecutive technological, industrial, and financial innovations. The course critically analyzes major economic changes in relation to the main political, intellectual, and socio-cultural turning points of modernity. The module examines European history in a global perspective. Overall, the course enhances students’ historical awareness, instills a sense of intellectual curiosity in them, and helps them develop their critical voice. 

This course introduces the analysis of political processes in well-established democracies. It focuses particularly on the topics of mass political behavior in contemporary democracies (such as voting participation, protest, and vote choice) and the impact of electoral, legislative, and executive institutions on policy outcomes. One of the central goals in the course is to evaluate whether the quality of political representation in contemporary democracies is as high as it could/should be and to come up with ways to improve it. Students are expected to become familiar with important theoretical arguments in the study of mass behavior, political institutions, and representation in advanced democracies; to be able to assess whether these arguments are supported by systematic empirical evidence; and to apply knowledge learned in the course to understand current political events and trends in democratic nations across the world. 

This course develops an understanding of the reasons, the range, and the extent of business-government relations, and develops concrete skills in order to effectively manage these relations. Through an interactive approach, the course shows the empirical application to healthcare sector. More specifically, the course illustrates the relations between the industry of medical technologies and public administration as to the several strategies of market access as a concrete and interesting case of how managing business government relations becomes crucial to succeed from both sides. The case of the healthcare sector covers a relevant part of the whole course because it is highly representative of public-private interrelations and lends itself to be representative of different jurisdictions.

The course is a rigorous introduction to probability. Students gain a solid grounding on the its foundations, learn how to deal with randomness with the correct mathematical tools and how to solve problems. Course topics include probability; definition and properties; conditional probability and independence; random variables and random vectors; joint and conditional distributions; expectation and moments; integral tranforms; convergence in distribution and the Central Limit Theorum; and modes of convergence and the laws of large numbers. Prerequisites: Set theory, sequences and series, continuous and differentiable functions, and integrals.

This course analyzes the economic issues related to the process of European integration through a theoretical and a policy perspective. Through the study of economic integration theories and the main European Union (EU) policies, students are able to acquire a critical perspective of the basic issues leading to the development of the European Institutions and the different historical phases of the European Union, ultimately giving birth to the Economic and Monetary Union. The course is composed of three parts. The first part of the course is devoted to the study of the theory of economic integration, considering the market of goods (customs unions, free trade areas), of factors of production (common markets) and the coordination of economic policies (economic union). A link is made between the theoretical instruments and the actual evolution of the European integration process. The second part explores the main European policies (common objectives, instruments, and financial means), their evolution over time and the corresponding mechanisms of governance. The third part of the course is centered on the Economic and Monetary Union and its effects for the European economy. 

The course uses experiential learning to develop the skills most critical to success in today's business landscape: designing and planning innovative business models. The course offers an industry focus on fashion, luxury, and retail, and integrates key topics such as sustainability and digitalization. This course explores how to design innovative business models with the support of a proprietary simulation software that allows to develop a practical approach integrating creative ideas with competitive and financial dimensions. Students can see the immediate consequences of their decisions and learn what it’s truly like to juggle competing priorities amidst a constant influx of information provided by the professors. The learning process is enhanced by the collaboration of external guest speakers and a start-up accelerator.

This course analyzes advanced management practices in complex business environments and offers a comprehensive introduction to Lean Management, a model derived from the diffusion of the principles and tools originally developed at the Toyota Motor Company. The course emphasizes the organizational, managerial, and human aspects of Lean Thinking and illustrates its adoption in a variety of industries and business functions. It analyzes how firms should design and implement lean systems and offers a framework to undertake and sustain lean transformations. It illustrates how the adoption of Lean Thinking principles and tools affect managerial decision making and problem solving, eliminating waste and variability. It also elaborates on recent trends such as the application of lean thinking to innovation (Lean Product and Process Development), to entrepreneurship (Lean Startup Method), to sustainability (Lean & Green), as well as its connection to the Agile movement.

This course provides an advanced understanding of the python programming language and its main features through various applications in many fields. Students use procedural and object-oriented programming language concepts in real programs; combine programming techniques to solve problems of varying degrees of difficulty in applied fields; find and understand programming language documentation to learn new information needed to solve programming problems; and implement problem solving strategies. Course topics include input/output in Python, classes, databases management with Python, computer simulations, and agent-based modeling. Prerequisites: an introductory course on python programming or similar language (e.g. Java, C, etc.).