Insegnamento a.a. 2019-2020

This course is divided into two main parts.

Part One: concerns the behavior of the economy in the short run:

• Overview of the world economy.
• How to measure and predict the state of the economy.
• Finance and the macro-economy.
• What central banks do. The ECB vs the Fed.
• What governments do. Italy’s budget law.
• Exchange rates and the euro.

Part Two: concerns the development of economies in the long-run and globalization.

• Determinants of economic growth.
• Structural reforms and macroeconomic performance.
• Costs and benefits of economic globalization.
• Multinational Corporations, Global Value Chains and the macroeconomic environment.
• Inequality and technological change.

• Understand and master basic and advanced tools of macroeconomics for analyzing media and company news.
• Understand the manifestation and the causes of recessions and recoveries in the data.
• Understand how Governments and central banks’ policies may accelerate growth, counteract business fluctuations and affect exchange rates.
• Recognize the main determinants of long-run growth and the impact of structural  policies.

• Explain the costs and the benefits of globalization and the implications for business.

• Identify the trade-offs firms face in managing global operations.

• Recognize the impact of technological change on the economy and the consequences for companies.

• Analyze media and company news about the economy

• Analyze the most important macroeconomic variables

• Evaluate economic policies and discuss their impact

• Discuss the growth impact of economic policies
• Discuss pros and cons of globalization
• Evaluate trade-offs faced by global companies
• Interpret the role of technological change

• Face-to-face lectures
• Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)

The learning experience of this course includes, in addition to face-to-face lectures, the discussion of real world cases using the tools learned in class.

With the purpose of measuring the acquisition of the above-mentioned learning outcomes, students’ assessment is based on two main components:

1. Written exam (85% of the final grade). The written exam consists of open-ended questions and closed questions.
   • Open-ended questions are aimed at verifying the ability of students of applying the tools developed during the course. They may include: short excerpts of articles, charts and tables to verify students’ ability of interpreting and discussing media and company news about the economy, extracting relevant information and applying the most suitable tools and concepts; short questions aimed at verifying students’ capability of discussion the implications of economic policies or shocks; finally, short statements to discussed to assess students’ ability to articulate economic reasoning.  
   • Multiple-choice questions are aimed at verifying the learning and understanding of the macroeconomic concepts discussed during the course.
   • Students can take a partial written exam and complete the written exam at the end of the course. The two partial exams are equally weighted to calculate the final grade.
2. Class Participation (15% of the final grade) aimed to test the students’ ability to interact in a constructive way and to think critically.

Students’ assessment is based on exams only, with the same options as for the attending students (partial + final, or just final).

A list of readings is made available on Bboard at the beginning of the course.