Learning objectives

The course completes the contents, both from a cultural and educational point of view, of the fundamental course of Political Economy that teaches the basic principles of welfare economics and market efficiency analysis from a social point of view. These notions are essential to understanding the impact of economic policies or shocks, such as the 2020 health emergency, on the well-being of citizens and firms’ efficiency, the supply of labor and the demand for consumer goods, and on the economy in general. The acquisition of basic knowledge concerns the typical tools of a laboratory devoted to the analysis of economic policies and to the economic interpretation of large economic data bases such as micro and macro-econometrics tools and mathematical programming tools for the analysis of social accounting matrices and simple equilibrium models connected to them. The skills that this approach based on the learning-by-doing principle (in this case by analysing data and economic policies related to real social problems) intends to develop concern the team work, considering that more students will work on the same or on more projects of interest, leadership (the project manager will be responsible for the quality of the result of the project itself), ability to solve problems also through co-creation processes of solutions based on the dialogue between the stakeholders of the project itself, and the ability to implement the same projects at and with companies or institutions that are stakeholders. These cognitive and non-cognitive skills, also of a transversal type such as communication skills within the group and skills in presenting results, autonomy of critical judgment and learning through practice, are fundamental for the cultural growth of the student and for his professional practice because the student will be able to take advantage of a set of analysis tools and interpretation of economic big data and models acquired in the laboratory that are supposed to be of great utility for the future profession.

Prerequisites and basic notions

Mathematics, micro and macro economics, econometrics and economic policy

Program

The course complements the contents of of Economic Policy, which teaches the basic principles of the economics of well-being and market analysis. These notions are fundamental for understanding the impact of economic policies or shocks, such as the health emergency of 2020, on the well-being of citizens and the efficiency of businesses, the supply of labor and the demand for consumer goods, and on the economy in general. The knowledge concerns the typical tools of an analysis laboratory of economic policies and of the large economic databases on which the analyzes are based: tools of micro and macro-econometrics and mathematical programming for the analysis of social accounting matrices and simple equilibrium models connected to them. The skills that this approach based on the principle of learning-by-doing (in this case analyzing real economic data and policies) intends to develop concern team work, considering that more students will work on the same or more projects of interest, leadership (the project leader will be responsible for the quality of the result of the project itself), for the ability to solve problems also through co-creation processes of solutions based on the dialogue between the stakeholders of the project itself, and the ability to implement the same projects at and with companies or institutions with stakeholders. These cognitive and non-cognitive skills, even of a transversal type such as communication skills within the group and skills in the presentation of results, autonomy of critical judgment and learning through practice, are fundamental for the cultural growth of the student and for his professional practice who will be able to benefit from a set of analysis and interpretation tools of economic big data and models acquired in the laboratory of great use in the world of work.

Bibliography

Didactic methods

Classroom sessions include the use of whiteboards and slide presentations, group discussions, and exercises. Students will learn project and economic policy evaluation techniques, statistical and econometric data collection and analysis, economic interpretation of results, and the preparation of a scientific report. Students will be able to delve deeper into the topics covered in class using the materials provided on the dedicated e-learning website and other materials provided by the instructor. Students will work in groups assigned a project. The groups will function as open laboratories, allowing students to learn from the experiences of other projects in the class. Students will learn by doing as project leaders and will be directly involved in the data collection phase (if they are not working on a project with already available data) and data analysis. Problem analysis and proposed solutions, preferably co-created with the problem's stakeholders and ideally implementable in practice, will be of great importance. The course requires 6 credits of lectures.

Learning assessment procedures

The exam verifies the level of achievement of the previously indicated learning objectives. There are two exam formats: one for those who attend classes (70% of which are lectures), and one for those who do not attend (70% of which are lectures). For those who attend, the evaluation is based on participation in the work groups conducted during the classes and the completion and presentation of a scientific project report. For those who do not attend, a written exam is required during the exam sessions plus the submission of a scientific project report.

Evaluation criteria

The elements taken into consideration for the evaluation of research project are: a) originality of the topic and of the analysis; b) scientific rigor of the presentation (use of economic and econometric models, graphs, tables and their interpretation); c) critical ability in the analysis of the topic. Plagiarism compromises the positive evaluation of the thesis.

Criteria for the composition of the final grade

For attending students, the final grade is composed of 75% of the scientific project and 25% of active class participation. For non-attending students, the final grade is composed of 75% of the written exam and 25% of the research paper.

Exam language

Italiano

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