Learning objectives

The course aims to investigate the functioning of an economy, and the role played in it by the main aggregate variables: GDP, added values, incomes, consumption, investments, taxes and public spending, labor and employment, prices, money supply and interest rate. These variables will be studied with the use of formalized theories, enriched by an empirical analysis on World Bank data. They refer to three markets. First, the goods market, both on the demand and on the supply side. Second, the market for money and financial assets, with particular attention to the variables that determine the interest rate. Third, the labor market, with the importance of the unemployment rate and the dynamics played by prices in the vicinity of full employment. The analysis will be conducted both in terms of short and long term, looking for the interdependencies and the links between the various markets described above, and on how the state can correct, through its policies, their limits and failures. I The main theories will be presented using a mix of descriptive, graphic and mathematical language. At the end of the lessons, the student will have to demonstrate to be able to use the analytical tools of the macroeconomics to understand and interpret the phenomena that regulate the evolution of economic systems at national aggregate level and to evaluate the macroeconomic effects of the intervention of the Central Bank and of the fiscal policy authorities .