Economics and Finance

MICHELE IMBRUNO
MICHELE IMBRUNO

The course seeks to enhance students’ knowledge on economics with coverage of both micro and macroeconomics at an intermediate level. The study of models in order to understand how economies work will also take advantage of analytical tools and great emphasis will be placed on empirical evidence obtained on economic data. This will allow students to identify – by means of economic analysis – the determinants of the economic developments observed in real world and the links between economic variables.
KNOWLEDGE ACHIEVED:

After passing the exam, students will be able to understand the major micro and macroeconomic models and use them for analyzing in details the economic phenomena, interpreting what happens in real economic world, and participating to the economic policy debate.

SKILLS ACHIEVED:

Thanks to the course attendance, after passing the exam the student acquires knowledge on a vast arrays of issues which can be fruitfully applied in a large number of professional contexts in the economic and financial sector. Moreover, the knowledge acquired will allow them to fully understand economic reports drafted by economists in policy institutions and a large part of scientific papers in economics both theoretical and empirical. This will allow students to draft themselves studies on economic issues, also dealing with their economic policy aspects.

The course seeks to enhance students’ knowledge on economics with coverage of both microeconomics and macroeconomics at an intermediate level. The study of models in order to understand how economies work will also take advantage of analytical tools and great emphasis will be placed on empirical evidence obtained on economic data. This will allow students to identify – by means of economic analysis – the determinants of the economic developments observed in real world and the links between economic variables.
After passing the exam, students will be able to understand the major microeconomic and macroeconomic models and use them for analyzing in details the economic phenomena, interpreting what happens in real economic world, and participating to the economic policy debate.
Thanks to the course attendance, after passing the exam the student acquires knowledge on a vast arrays of issues which can be fruitfully applied in a large number of professional contexts in the economic and financial sector.

The pre-requisite is to have passed the exam of "Economia Politica".

The course provides a coverage of a number of economic models at a more advanced level compared to the first-year course of Principle of economics. The course features a section on microeconomics and another one on macroeconomics, although emphasis will be placed on the interactions between the two fields.
In the initial part of the course, devoted to microeconomics, we first examine the equilibrium choice of the consumer, developing issues pertaining to individual preferences, utility maximization subject to the budget constraint and optimal choice of consumption giving rise to the demand function. Other questions deal with intertemporal choice, decisions under uncertainty and the measurement of the degree of risk aversion. We then study equilibrium of the competitive firm’s through the analysis of profit maximization subject to the technology constraint, leading to the factor demand and product supply functions. Subsequently, we study market structures which are different from perfect competition and, in particular, we focus on monopoly, oligopoly and monopolistic competition. We therefore examine general equilibrium and the notion of Pareto optimality.
In the section of the course on macroeconomics, the analysis first focuses on long-run economic growth with the analysis of its determinants according to theSolow model. We then focus on the labor market from a long-run perspective, focusing on the natural rate of unemployment with a job flow analysis.
Subsequently, we focus on the short run by examining equilibrium in the goods market and the financial market through the IS-LM model; subsequently, we turn the attention to the medium run considering also the labor market with the formulation of the model of aggregate demand and supply. The latter has different characteristics depending on the hypotheses adopted on the presence of nominal rigidity in the economy. We then study the implications for macro aggregates of monetary and fiscal policy interventions under these different hypotheses. We focus on different transmission mechanisms of monetary policy and also analyze the Phillips curve introducing the notion of natural rate of unemployment and considering the role of expectations.

Microeconomia: Varian, Hal, (2011) “Microeconomia”, (7° ediz.), Cafoscarina
Macroeconomia: Mankiw, Gregory, N. e Mark P. Taylor, (2015), “Macroeconomia”, (6° ediz.), Zanichelli

The course will mainly take place with lectures.

Attendance is not required.

The assessment consists of a written exam and a potential oral exam. The written exam includes multiple-choice questions and/or open-ended questions.

The test includes multiple-choice questions with 4 possible answers, while the open-ended questions can also include exercises.