Economics

This course provides a foundational introduction to the basics of actuarial science, focusing on the theory of interest and life contingencies and their application to lifecycle planning. It explores key actuarial models to analyze essential financial concepts, including economic balance sheets, personal net worth, human capital, assets, liabilities, and the fundamentals of retirement planning. In light of rapid advancements in artificial intelligence, this course emphasizes the practical integration of these technologies. Students will learn to harness the power of large language models (LLMs) to assist in and elevate the actuarial analysis of financial scenarios. 

This course examines mechanisms underlying real economic integration, including growth convergence, trade, factor mobility and fiscal transfers. It also analyzes theoretical and policy dimensions of the economic integration of Europe, the recent history of European monetary and financial integration, and the rationale for European Monetary Union, the theory of optimal currency areas, the European Central Bank, fiscal and monetary policy in a currency union, and the impact of banking and sovereign debt crises on the financial stability of the Eurozone.

This course introduces health economics as an applied field that uses microeconomic theory and empirical methods to study health, healthcare markets, and policy. 

The course is organized across the academic year: The fall semester examines demand-side behavior through formal economic models of individual decision-making, while this course analyzes supply-side behavior. It studies how healthcare providers, insurers, and firms operate under production constraints, strategic incentives, and regulatory frameworks.

This course is to enable students to conduct in-depth analysis of listed companies' financial statements by integrating macroeconomic analysis and industry analysis, estimate their intrinsic value, and thereby provide support for investment decision-making in the securities market.

This course examines how macroeconomic systems work by exploring the interdependence between different sectors of the economy, including the goods, labor, and financial markets. It explores the interactions between economies, including through exchanges rates and capital movements.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. This course covers topics on currency, liquidity, and balance of payment crises as well as international financial contagion. Issues pertaining to monetary/financial, exchange rate, in connection with the antecedents and aftermath of crises are studied at both the theoretical and empirical level. It is an advanced course that builds on the standard intertemporal small open economy models with frictions such as imperfect capital markets, intertemporal distortions, and non-tradable goods and applies these theoretical tools to study in detail specific topics inspired by recent events such as financial crises, the global role of the dollar, and the economic effects of the covid virus.

The course examines financial risk management in global markets, with emphasis on risk assessment, hedging strategies, derivatives, foreign exchange, interest rates, credit risk, and financial crises. Students explore the application of financial risk management tools and strategies in multinational business environments.

This course examines Aotearoa New Zealand’s socio‑historical context, with a particular focus on the Māori economy. It looks explores He Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti o Waitangi as key frameworks shaping Māori self‑determination, governance, and economic activity. Students explore the Māori economy, including the roles of iwi and Māori authorities, and Māori values that support holistic, multi‑bottom‑line approaches to enterprise, leadership, sustainability, and decision‑making. Through real‑world contexts, students examine how business knowledge and practice are shaped by historical, cultural, political, and ethical influences. 

This course examines the nature and causes of inequalities in wealth and income that characterize the world. It covers global as well as local dimensions of inequality, and the nature of disparities between various population sub-groups including indigenous peoples, and how these disparities change over time. It looks at how to measure inequality, to differentiate between outcome and opportunity disparities, and to use economic theories in explaining these phenomena. Factors such as capital, labor, technological change, globalization, education, financialization and institutional structures will be covered. It also looks at government policies aimed at reducing inequality. 

This course will introduce China’s economic law institutions, basic economic law principles and some related thinking approaches.