University of Commerce Luigi Bocconi

This course explores the conceptual and theoretical framework surrounding valuation issues and the practical tools to address such topics in real-life situations. The methodologies for corporate valuation are analyzed and the approaches commonly used by practitioners (financial analysts, investment and merchant banks, consulting firms) are discussed with particular regard to the context and to the purposes of the valuation. Valuation of intangibles assets is analyzed with a focus on brands and copyrights. Students discuss topics including theoretical framework and fundamental skills in company valuation, an overview of valuation methodologies, net asset approach, intangible assets valuation, estimating the cost of capital, relationships between leverage and discount rates, discounted cash flow analysis and APV, comparative valuation: stock market and deal multiples approach, income approach, acquisition value, exchange ratios in mergers, and premiums and discounts in company valuation. Knowledge of basic financial accounting and basic corporate finance is encouraged, but not required, as a prerequisite. 

This course develops a comprehensive overview of modern globalization processes, their characteristics, and their implications for corporate performance. The ultimate objective of this course is to provide students with an interpretative framework to analyze how different companies –both transnational and domestic - can approach the risks and opportunities that globalization entails and deal with the strategic tradeoffs they face in a global context. This course is designed to develop an in-depth understanding of modern globalization processes and their implications for corporate strategies. The first part introduces modern globalization and its characteristics in light of the concurrent evolution of globalization and localization trends. It looks at the emerging geography of production and labor, introducing the concept of technological change as the key enabling process of the global economy. The second part of the course examines the key actors involved, namely companies confronting daily the opportunities and risks of doing (or not) business in the global market. The course addresses all major strategic options for business development in an interdependent and open economy, including location decisions, knowledge generation, and management strategies and human capital management practices. These different strategic options are analyzed through the lenses of conceptual arguments, empirical evidences, and evidences from real world experience. The course recommend students have a general background in international business and management at the undergraduate level as a prerequisite.

This course provides students with a general understanding of the different functions performed by financial markets and institutions and their role in the economic system. The course begins with a brief overview of the functions of the financial system and its connections to the real economy. The course then studies the functioning of financial markets and the main financial instruments. Finally, the course studies the economics of different types of financial institutions. The first part of the course analyzes in detail the characteristics of the major financial assets, and describes the institutional characteristics of the markets in which these assets are traded. The second part of the course studies in detail the objectives as well as the organization of the major financial intermediaries (commercial banks, investment banks, mutual funds) that allow to match demand and supply of funds when securities markets do not function perfectly. The course recommends students have background knowledge in Mathematics (applied), Management, Accounting, and Financial Statement Analysis as a prerequisite.

This course enables students to take a critical stance towards the developments within contemporary art as well as towards the manner in which art is dealt with both scientifically and in the economic practices that concern it. For this purpose it shows how the canonical conceptualization of art and the nature of art itself within the metaphysical tradition end in a crisis, in which the accomplishment of both the metaphysical way of thinking and the metaphysical form of art coexists with a new beginning of both these spheres. Rather than proceeding historically, the course involves students in a hands-on study of some core aspects of the outlined crisis, so as to foster both their artistic sense and their analytical capacities in a manner that is attuned to the environment in which they need to operate. The course discusses topics including what is philosophy of art; The first man was an artist; the economist as an artist (and vice versa); metaphysics, aesthetics, and metaphysical art; the path of modernity; art of the end and art of the beginning; space and time in painting, music, sculpture, and poetry; the science of space and time; the science of art; and artistic economics.

This course examines the key role of economic activities as a driver of climate change and how economic tools can be used to investigate this problem and to design climate policies. In order to deal with the problem of climate change, students have to rethink some key economic concepts such as efficiency, externality, intertemporal decision making under uncertainty, and welfare aggregation, from a new and more applied perspective. Students also become familiar with key tools for climate change and long term energy policy making: integrated assessment models. The general mechanism of these tools are learned through applications like the role of innovation in the energy sector, game theory and the (in)stability of international climate agreements, and how the inclusion of uncertainty affects optimal policies and investment decisions. The course discusses topics including and introduction to the climate change challenge, integrated assessment models, making decisions about the environment (cost benefit and cost effective analysis), who is the social planner? (Inter-temporal and social aggregation issues), modeling technological change and climate mitigation technologies, valuation methods (valuing the market and non-market benefits of avoided climate change), environmental policy making, and international environmental agreements.

This course provides an overview of the history of law in Europe. The course sketches the history of a common civilization, to which people contributed coming from different and faraway lands, cities, kingdoms, and towns. A special focus is on the sources of law: legislation, legal doctrine, and legal practice. The relevance of each of these sources varied over time. In order to shed light on the common features throughout the history of Europe, the course focuses on a selection of the institutions of private and public law which are most representative of each epoch and each country. A special emphasis is on the correlation between the laws and the role played by professional jurists. All topics in the course are dealt with particular attention to the exchange of normative bodies, legislations, doctrines, judicial decisions, and customs within Europe, including English Common Law. Overall, the course introduces students to the complexities of European legal history through in-depth analysis of the sources of the law, from the middle ages to the present time. The course recommends students have background knowledge with the fundamentals of Private Law and Public Law.