Economics

This course analyzes how organizations in contemporary societies, often giant public administrations and private companies, operate. It provides the basic concepts of organization theory from a sociological perspective: control and efficiency; resource interdependencies and power; and bureaucracy (for organizing routine work), collegiality (for organizing innovative work), and combinations of both. The course discusses the role of organizations in the political economy, in social stratification, and in a digitalized society. Within this framework, the course puts a special emphasis on struggles to promote new institutions and to encourage innovation in the face of global challenges such as climate change.

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. The course focuses on how economic thought has evolved over time and introduces students to a critical comparison of the contributions of the principal schools of economic thought: the classical, the marginalist revolution, and its application to the theories of general and partial equilibrium, and the current macroeconomic debate between the neo-classical and the Keynesian school. The course highlights specific theoretical contributions in the field of economic thought and key economists in the international economic debate. Economic thought is analyzed in relation to both its philosophical foundations and political implications and the contexts from which it emerged. The course is centered on the different visions and schools of economic thought that have evolved over time and their ties to the social, political, economic, and philosophical dimensions of their times.

The goal of this course is to provide rigorous theories and frameworks for understanding modern macroeconomic issues, debates, policies, and solutions. The course also aims to develop data analysis skills using macroeconomic data and MS Excel. 

Prerequisites: Principles of Microeconomics, Principles of Macroeconomics and Calculus I.

The course addresses the main approaches to the measurement of inequality and poverty, their main trends at the global level, and their fundamental determinants. For each topic the course discusses the relevant theoretical framework, the main measurement issues, and the available empirical evidence. The course discusses topics including trends in inequality and poverty including inequality, the financial crisis, and the great recession, and global trends in inequality and poverty.; measurement tools including the need for criteria, the transfer principle and other criteria for evaluating inequality measures, income distribution functions (Pareto, Normal, and Log-normal), partial ordering methods (stochastic dominance and the Lorenz Curve), complete ordering methods (the Gini index), and measuring inequality using STATA; topics in inequality including the top 1%: capital in the 21st century, the remaining 99% (skills, education, job polarization, robots, trade, and the rise of earnings inequality), migration and inequality, intergenerational inequality (where is the Land of Opportunity?); measurement of intergenerational income elasticity and rank-rank regressions, the Great Gatsby curve, and optimal taxation; and topics in poverty including poverty measures, anti-poverty policies (earned income tax credit and food stamps), and Universal Basic Income in  advanced Countries. The course strongly recommends students have a background in microeconomics, mathematics, and statistics, including basic concepts such as utility functions, derivatives, integrals, probability distribution functions, expected values, mean, variance, and other basic quantitative concepts.

The emergence of new powers is changing today's global order. Yet the economic and political developments underlying this new era have deep historical roots. This course teaches students to the major historical events and trends that have shaped the global economy, starting with the industrial revolution in the 18th century and the first period of true globalization in the 19th century, as imperialism and capitalism spread across the world. The 20th century is a story of both unprecedented growth and economic divergence. It is also one of repeated crises, from the First World War, the Great Depression, and the Second World War, through to the oil and debt crises of the 1970s and 1980s.

This course provides a comprehensive overview of what blockchain is and how it works. It explores the transition from the accounting traditional ledger to a distributed one and describes how transactions occur under this new paradigm. Insights on how blockchain affect the future of industry and organizations also are covered. The course also covers aspects related to automation of assurance procedures and provides some concepts to develop a blockchain system. Finally, an introduction to the concept of the digitalization of assets and related contract automation which leads to Smart Contracts are discussed. The mission of this course is to introduce concepts and tools to understand the potential of blockchain technology in real world applications.

This course offers an introduction to individual decision-making. It explores game theory techniques that can be useful to understand strategic situations that appear in all areas of everyday life. Topics include: preferences; simultaneous games; nash equilibrium; backward induction; subgame perfect nash equilibrium; behavioral economics; neuroeconomics.

This course helps students understand how business regulation operates in domestic and global contexts. Students examine the foundational reasons for why government intervenes in market economies, as well as how regulatory agencies are designed, created, and maintained.  Students look closely at the nature of regulatory standards and how they are shaped, and they examine how business organizations understand and comply with regulations.  Additionally, students examine environmental regulatory tools, such as carbon taxes and cap and trade programs to understand how they are designed and how effective they are in reducing the incidence of pollution.  Finally, on the domestic front, students learn about regulating innovation and technological challenges, such as artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency and social media on tech platforms.  

This course examines the economic principles underlying various areas of the law and which are relevant to legal practice. It covers competition law and consumer protection; property rights, including intellectual property; and issues of damages and compensation. The course will develop economic tools to analyze these legal issues including incomplete contracting, oligopoly analysis and incomplete information.