Insegnamento a.a. 2024-2025

Part 1 (ca. 25% of the course):

• We first discuss economic theories seeking to understand political behavior (such as voting behavior or political parties’ platform choice) and its implications for economic policies and institutions.
• Next, we cover how modern empirical methods, including natural and field experiments, are used in political economics analysis.

Part 2 (ca. 75% of the course):

• We then use these methods to study three key areas of empirical political economics:
  • 1) how political institutions--such as democratic- and non-democratic forms of government--shape economic outcomes;
  • 2) how key social and economic factors, such as education, the media, and lobbying, shape political outcomes;
  • 3) contemporary issues in political economics (including, among other topics, the causes and consequences of the rise in populism and political polarization; the political economics of climate change; conflict and violence).

• Understand how the scientific method is used to illuminate key questions in political economics.
• Summarize evidence on the relationship between political institutions and economic outcomes.
• Describe how economic and social factors shape political outcomes.
• Grasp foundational models in political economics.

• Evaluate claims about the relationship between political institutions and the economy based on the strength of the empirical evidence provided.
• Critically evaluate empirical studies in political economics.
• Interpret contemporary politics through the lens of political economics models.
• Formulate own research design to answer questions in political economics.

• Lectures
• Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
• Individual works / Assignments
• Collaborative Works / Assignments

• The learning experience of this course is based on face-to-face lectures, individual and group assignments, as well as guest lectures.

• Classes are enriched by interactive discussions and peer learning, including student presentations of empirical research papers form the course's syllabus.

• For the group assignment, students will develop and present a group project in the form of a research proposal for an empirical study in political economy.

• Students receive feedback on their group project in office hours, as well as from peers during in-lecture feedback sessions.

• In addition, the course includes one or two guest lectures by political economy researchers from Bocconi whose research specialized in topics discussed in class.

The final grade is made up of 3 components:

• A team assignment in the form of a final paper. It counts for 50% of the final grade.

• A presentation of the team assignment in class, which counts for 25% of the final grade.

• The general exam, which counts for the remaining 25%.

Details on the team assignment:

• The final paper should be a research proposal for an empirical study in political economy. The paper should explain the research question, its importance, the design, the data to be used, and the proposed analysis. The paper should be up to 15 pages long (can be shorter).
• Students can work on the assignment in groups of up to 3 students. They can also decide to work on the project by themselves. Students themselves choose whom to work with.

To pass the course, each individual element (final paper, presentation, exam) must be passed with at least 18 points.

Note, the grades of the final paper and of the presentation are valid until 31/12/2025.

• The general exam counts for 100% of the grade.

In terms of course materials, we will rely on three different sources:

• Lecture slides, which will be published at least one day in advance of each class.
• Recent empirical research papers in political economy, which will be listed in the syllabus.
• For the theoretical part, we will rely on the following textbook: Persson, T. and G. Tabellini. Political Economics. Explaining Economic Policy. The MIT press, 2002.